


Fight for You

by sapphire_child



Category: Lost
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Episode: s03e17 Silverfinger, Episode: s03e21 Greatest Hits, Episode: s03e22-23 Through the Looking Glass, F/M, Gen, Romance, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-18
Updated: 2007-12-28
Packaged: 2019-01-17 14:35:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12367833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphire_child/pseuds/sapphire_child
Summary: AU. Claire is suspicious enough when Desmond comes and asks Charlie to help him with a project but when she discovers that Desmond nearly let Charlie get killed by Rousseau’s arrow trap, she realises that they’re both still keeping secrets from her. When she discovers that Charlie is actually planning to die in the Looking Glass so that she might be rescued, Claire insists that the decision be taken out of his hands and puts the other survivors to a vote. From there, it’s all AU fun and games!





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [falafelfiction](https://archiveofourown.org/users/falafelfiction/gifts).



> Thanks to [](https://falafel-fiction.livejournal.com/profile)[falafel_fiction](https://falafel-fiction.livejournal.com/) who gave me her original plot bunny for this fic (she wanted to see Claire fighting to keep Charlie alive) and allowed me to splice it with a bunny of my own and create a new, more involved storyline.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue - Catch 22

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155122168@N03/36527342043/in/album-72157686884668124/)

Claire was more than a little surprised when the camping trip returned and Charlie didn’t come straight home to the tent that they shared. It was almost like a ritual, for him to recount his treks to her when he got back from them – he’d always done it. Which is why she was so surprised to return to her tent after a long walk only to find his bag and his guitar returned but Charlie nowhere to be seen.

Curious as to where he might’ve gone, Claire glanced quickly over his belongings as she put Aaron in his crib. Nothing seemed out of place with the exception of his guitar – there seemed to be something funny going on with the neck. Closer inspection revealed that something had punctured it, snapping several of the strings. Claire worried it with her fingertips, frowning. Maybe this was why Charlie hadn’t lingered to wait for her to get back? He was bound to be upset that his guitar was broken. He was probably trying to find somebody to help him fix it.

Assuming that he would be back soon, Claire set herself to the task of folding nappies for Aaron and waited impatiently for Charlie to appear. Nearly two hours later he finally came trudging up, his eyes on his feet. He didn’t even realise that Claire was sitting at their shelter until he was almost standing on top of her and even then he didn’t look all that pleased to see her when she jumped up and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“Where’ve you been?” she demanded, her hands resting on his shoulders as she smiled up at him. “I found your stuff here when I got back from my walk but I’ve been waiting for you to come back for ages! What happened?”

“Had some stuff to do,” Charlie said shortly. “How’ve you and Aaron been?”

“We’ve been good,” Claire flopped onto the bed and Charlie settled himself down awkwardly next to her. “He missed you terribly of course. How was the camping trip?” She nudged him teasingly. “Did you get the others all toasting imaginary marshmallows?”

Charlie smiled tightly. “Not exactly.”

“Well what did you do out there?” Claire asked conversationally. “I mean, you guys were gone for a couple of…”

“Not a whole lot,” Charlie interrupted her. “Just, you know, guy stuff.”

“Oh,” Claire said, deflating slightly in the wake of an awkward silence. “So…what happened to your guitar?”

“Oh…that was nothing,” Charlie said evasively. When Claire raised her eyebrows at him however, he elaborated slightly. “Well actually that was Desmond’s fault,” he said grudgingly. “He set off one of Rousseau’s death traps and I nearly got skewered by an arrow.”

Claire grabbed his arm. “Oh my God! Charlie!”

“I’m okay though!” Charlie said hastily, trying to calm her down. “The guitar isn’t okay but I am. I was lucky really – Des tackled me out of the way just in time.”

“That _is_ lucky,” Claire frowned, musing. “Hey, you don’t think he had a flash of it beforehand? I mean, he would have told you wouldn’t he?”

Charlie was silent for a moment before he spoke again. He appeared to be struggling to get the words out. “I would…assume so.”

“Well,” Claire said blithely. “I’m sure if Desmond had a vision he would have told you about it so we shouldn’t worry about…”

“Yeah,” Charlie talked right over the top of her. “Hey can we talk about something else?”

“Why?” Claire asked, surprised.

“Uh…”Charlie scratched his head, pretending to concentrate hard. “Because I don’t _really_ want to talk about my imminent demise?”

“Don’t say that,” Claire said instantly. “You’ve just got to keep thinking positive…”

Charlie snorted. “Yeah. Yeah I’ll do that.”

“Why are you so snappy?” Claire demanded. “I’d’ve thought you’d be pleased to get back home!”

“I _am_ pleased to be back!”Charlie snapped.

“Well it sure doesn’t sound like it!” Claire snapped back. There was a long, icy silence between them broken only by Charlie nervously tapping his fingers against his knees. After a moment, Claire reached out and laced her fingers with his and Charlie instantly relaxed.

“I’m sorry,” Claire said apologetically. “I didn’t mean to push the subject. I know that you must be scared and everything – and me talking about it so much can’t be helping.”

“Yeah,” Charlie sighed and turned to give Claire a commiserating look. “I’m sorry too. I don’t mean to snap.”

“That’s okay,” Claire smiled at him and Charlie took this as his cue to lean forward and plant a soft kiss on her lips.

“I missed you and Aaron,” Charlie murmured against her lips. “I kept on thinking about you both all the time. Even when I was off playing cub scouts with the boys.”

“That’s sweet of you to say,” Claire smiled, somewhat appeased. But there was something in his eyes when she pulled back that she couldn’t quite place and it worried her a little. A longing perhaps, to say something more, a tinge of regret – or perhaps it was the taint of a lie that was meant to soothe her, to keep her complacent. “Are you absolutely sure that Desmond didn’t have another vision though?” she asked him once more, her voice quiet. “Because if he did and you haven’t told me…”

“He did not have another vision about me,” Charlie said firmly, looking her right in the eye. “And I promise you luv, if he has any more then you will be the very first person I tell.” Claire gazed into Charlie’s eyes searchingly and he stared back steadily and _God_ how she wanted to believe that he wasn’t lying to her. She really, truly did.

But she couldn’t.

“Okay?” Charlie smiled at her, beguiling and sweet and…and her resolve crumbled.

“Okay,” she mumbled. But even as Charlie pecked her on the cheek, as he swooped down upon Aaron and mumbled nonsense to his surrogate son, she swore silently to herself that the next time she suspected Charlie wasn’t telling her everything about Desmond or his visions, she was going to keep badgering him until he finally gave in.

Because next time, she knew, it wouldn’t be his guitar that got hurt.

It would be him.


	2. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU. Claire is suspicious enough when Desmond comes and asks Charlie to help him with a project but when she discovers that Desmond nearly let Charlie get killed by Rousseau’s arrow trap, she realises that they’re both still keeping secrets from her. When she discovers that Charlie is actually planning to die in the Looking Glass so that she might be rescued, Claire insists that the decision be taken out of his hands and puts the other survivors to a vote. From there, it’s all AU fun and games!

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155122168@N03/36527342043/in/album-72157686884668124/)

“I’m worried about Charlie.”  
  
Hurley looked up from the kitchen table at Claire, his heavy brow furrowed.  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“I said I’m worried about Charlie,” Claire repeated, absently cutting through thin air. Hurley helpfully moved her banana further along the chopping board for her. “Oh, thanks,” Claire said, scooping up the slices of fruit and depositing them into a dented bowl one handed. “He went to go help Desmond with something and he hasn’t come back yet.”  
  
Hurley seemed non-plussed. “And?”  
  
“Well,” Claire murmured, hitching Aaron more securely into her arm. “I’m wondering if Desmond’s had another flash or something.”  
  
“Oh,” Hurley paused then shrugged. “I dunno. Nobody’s said anything to me. Maybe they’re just, you know, talking about stuff.”  
  
“Maybe,” Claire said uneasily.  
  
Hurley scrutinised her for a moment over the top of his own pile of fruit and then he sighed. “Dude, if you’re that worried about Charlie then just go  _talk_  to him. I’m sure he’ll tell you if there’s something up.”  
  
“I’m not so sure that he will,” Claire said morosely. “When I asked him about how his guitar got broken he said it was an accident but I’m sure he wasn’t telling me everything.” She paused and then appealed to Hurley. “I don’t suppose you know if Desmond had a flash of it beforehand? Charlie said he didn’t but…”  
  
“Man, Charlie didn’t tell you about that at all?” Hurley said, honestly surprised. “He was complaining to me about it for like a week.”  
  
Claire frowned. “Why? Because his guitar got broken?”  
  
“No way. He was freaking out cause Desmond like, saw Charlie getting skewered by the arrow but he didn’t tell him till  _after_  it happened. The dude came  _this_  close to letting him get turned into a shish kabob…”  
  
Claire gaped at Hurley for a moment and then gave an angry hiss. “I knew it!” she said angrily. “I  _knew_  Charlie was lying to me! And Desmond! How could he not tell Charlie what he’d seen?”  
  
“He thought if he saved Charlie that his girlfriend wouldn’t come to rescue us,” Hurley mumbled, beginning to pick at his fruit disconsolately. “Turns out he was right – we got that Naomi chick instead.”  
  
“He was going to let Charlie die so that he could see his  _girlfriend_?” Claire was aghast. “What the hell is wrong with him?!”  
  
“Well he probably misses her or something,” Hurley said reasonably. At the withering look Claire gave him he hastily added, “Not that, you know, that’s any excuse for nearly letting Charlie die or anything…”  
  
“I need to talk to Charlie about this,” Claire said decisively and she parcelled Aaron into Hurley’s bewildered arms. “Can you watch him? If he gets fussy just go put him in his cradle.”  
  
“Uh, sure I guess,” Hurley held the infant awkwardly. “How long are you gonna be?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Claire exhaled heavily, trying to calm herself down. “Hopefully not long. Do you know where they are?”  
  
“I think I saw them heading up the beach before,” Hurley offered and Claire strode off without a backwards glance.  
  
It didn’t take long for her to find the two of them huddled into the sand, talking quietly. They were so absorbed in their conversation that they didn’t even realise that Claire was there until she greeted them with an overly chipper “hi!”  
  
“Hello,” Desmond shielded his eyes from the sun. “What brings you out here Claire?”  
  
“I was wondering if I borrow Charlie for a minute?” Claire asked, still trying to keep her voice cheerful. Both men stared up at her, bewildered, and then they looked at each other.  
  
“Sorry,” Charlie said after a moment, his eyes still on Desmond. “We’re a bit busy at the moment.”  
  
“Doing what?” Claire asked.  
  
“Planning,” Desmond jumped in and Charlie nodded along convincingly. “We were thinking about maybe going on another camping trip once all this stuff with the Others blows over…”  
  
“Oh don’t give me that crap!” Claire snapped, losing her temper. “Charlie, I need to talk to you.”  
  
“Now?” Charlie asked, surprised.  
  
“Yes,  _now_ ,” she said peevishly.  
  
“Anything you want to say to me you can say with Desmond here,” Charlie said, maddeningly. Claire almost had to physically stop herself from screaming in frustration.  
  
“Not everything,” Claire muttered. When he didn’t budge, she softened a little though. “Please Charlie?”  
  
Charlie sighed and then finally stood, shooting Desmond an apologetic glance as he went that made Claire bristle again. Claire led him all the back to the piece of beach that their shelter looked out onto and then she turned to him.  
  
“So what’s all this about then?” he asked, facing her and crossing his arms. “And why are we having a private conversation in the middle of the beach?”  
  
“I was just talking to Hurley at the kitchen,” Claire jumped feet first into the deep end. “And he said some very interesting things about your guitar…” Charlie eyed her warily. “…And how it got broken.”  
  
Charlie pursed his lips and looked down guiltily.  
  
“Oh.”  
  
“Yeah,” Claire said flatly. “ _Oh_.” When Charlie didn’t offer anything more, she pressed on. “He said that Desmond had a flash of it happening only he didn’t tell you. He said that Desmond only just pushed you out of the way in time.”  
  
Charlie was still looking at the sand.  
  
“He said that you told him about Desmond’s flash. That you complained about it even. And yet when I asked you about it, you lied to me. Why is that?”  
  
“I didn’t want you to worry,” Charlie muttered at his shoes.  
  
“Oh don’t go all  _noble_  on me Charlie,” Claire snapped. “I told you that I wanted to help you and you might not believe me but I did actually mean it.”  
  
Charlie was silent then, sulky.  
  
“Has Desmond had another flash?” Claire asked finally.  
  
“No,” Charlie said instantly but his face flickered guiltily and Claire shook her head at him in disgust.  
  
“You’re lying to me again,” she said, feeling sick. “Why are you lying to me Charlie? I thought we were in this together!”  
  
“Well you thought wrong then, didn’t you?” Charlie snapped.  
  
Claire stiffened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”  
  
“Nothing,” Charlie said mutinously. “Now if you’ll excuse me…”  
  
“Don’t walk away from me!” Claire yelled, her hands balling into fists as she chased after him, growing increasingly desperate. “I’m trying to help you Charlie! Please!”  
  
“It’s not like you could stop anything from happening to me even if you wanted to!” Charlie wheeled around to face her again, his eyes blazing with anger and unshed tears. “God! Why do you even bother?”  
  
“Because I love you!” Claire blurted unthinkingly.  
  
Charlie’s jaw dropped.  
  
“ _What_?”  
  
Claire froze, her face flooding with colour as her brain caught up to her mouth.  
  
“You heard me,” she muttered, still blushing. “I said…I said that I love you.”  
  
Charlie mouthed soundlessly at her for a moment and then began to stutter. “I…I well…”  
  
Claire stepped closer to him. “I do,” she said earnestly, taking his hands. “I’m not just saying that because…you know. I mean it Charlie. I really do.”  
  
“Claire, I…” Charlie shook his head helplessly at her for a moment and then let out a moan. “Oh God…” he whimpered.  
  
“Charlie!” Claire cried out, alarmed, as his face seemed to crumble before her eyes. She went to embrace him but Charlie took a step backwards and put his hands up in an unmistakable halting motion between them.  
  
“No! Please…don’t…just…just…”  
  
“Charlie I’m going to get really offended in a second,” Claire said reprovingly and pushed his hands aside so she could step up close to him again. Her face still felt flushed, but it was from anger now rather than embarrassment. “I tell you that…that…you know. And you get upset?” her voice rose shrilly. “What have you got to be upset about? You’ve been in love with me for ages! I thought this was what you wanted!”  
  
“It  _is_  what I wanted!” Charlie turned away from her, his voice quietly miserable. “Christ Claire – you think I ever wanted it to end like this?”  
  
Claire froze in the act of putting her hand on his shoulder.  
  
Charlie froze too.  
  
“What did you just say?”Claire said, her voice deathly quiet.  
  
“It doesn’t matter,” Charlie said stiffly, turning fully away from her.  
  
“Of course it bloody well matters!” Claire grabbed his shoulders and forced him to face her. “Why would you even say that Charlie? Why?” There was a pause as she stared desperately into his eyes, and then she remembered what they had been arguing about in the first place and, to her horror, she realised that she had been right all along. “Desmond  _did_  have another one of his flashes. Didn’t he?”  
  
Charlie sighed heavily but then he nodded.  
  
Claire scowled heavily at him. “Well why didn’t you just  _tell_  me then instead of lying about it? Idiot!” she gave his shoulder a shove and then as an afterthought, she grasped both his hands in hers as though to apologise for hitting him. “How does it happen? When?”  
  
“It happens when I turn off the jammer switch in the Looking Glass station,” Charlie mumbled, not meeting her eyes. “I turn it off and then…and then I drown.”  
  
Claire took a moment to process this and then frowned. “What the hell is a Looking Glass station?”  
  
“It’s an underwater Dharma station,” Charlie explained. “Sayid thinks that it’s attached to the cable that he found further down the beach. If somebody can get down to the station and unblock the signal then he can use Naomi’s phone to call her ship, to get us all rescued.”  
  
“Okay,” Claire said in a steady voice. “Okay well then we need to find somebody else to swim down there then. Sayid, or maybe...”  
  
“No,” Charlie argued back instantly. “I have to be the one to turn off the…”  
  
“If you know you’re going to drown there then the absolute worst thing you could do is swim down there!” Claire said sternly. “Somebody else can do it. I’m not...”  
  
“No! You don’t understand!” Charlie yanked his hands back out of her grasp. “If I don’t die then the helicopter won’t come!”  
  
“Helicopter?” Claire said confusedly.  
  
“If I don’t die then you won’t get on it,” Charlie explained. “Or maybe it won’t even come – I don’t know. Either way, the only thing we can do is just…just accept this. I’ll go down there, flick the switch off, drown, and then you and Aaron can finally go home. End of story.”  
  
“No it’s not the end of the story!” Claire argued. “I’ve had too many people I care about leave me Charlie and I’m not letting you go too! I need you – Aaron needs you!”  
  
As if on cue, the sound of a babies cry rent the still air. Both of them turned and saw Hurley putting Aaron carefully into his cradle. Claire gestured at their shelter impatiently, indicating that she and Charlie should go and relieve Hurley and continue their conversation there. Grinding his teeth in frustration, Charlie began to stride over and Claire followed him, hissing like an angry goose. Hurley, seeing the aggravation between the two of them, swiftly excused himself and he tiptoed off down the beach, glancing back at them worriedly.  
  
“You are  _not_  going to go down there on some suicide mission because you think it’s going to get me rescued,” she told him matter-of-factly through the tears she was fighting back as Charlie knelt beside Aaron’s crib and shushed him. “I’ve already been responsible for the deaths of two people here Charlie, and I’m certainly not planning to let you die for me  _again_. So you are not going, even if I have to knock you out and tie you to a tree. Because if you die because of me…” she took a deep shuddering breath. “I won’t ever be able to forgive myself.”  
  
“You can’t stop me from going,” Charlie said simply, standing up again.  
  
“Oh can’t I?” Claire said menacingly, hands on her hips. “What if I go and tell Jack and everyone else that you’re thinking about going on a suicide mission? Do you think anyone will let you go then?”  
  
“Jack already knows that it’s a suicidal mission anyway,” Charlie pointed out. “And I could easily run off with Desmond while you pow wow with him. By the time you told him everything I’d be long gone and nobody would be able to stop me.”  
  
Claire stared at him for a moment, furious beyond all measure, and then she snatched up a handful of his shirt and with her free hand, she grabbed and twisted one of his ears. Charlie yelped in pain.  
  
“Argh! Bloody hell! Wow, God…you must’ve been a nun in a past life – I thought only Sisters knew how to twist ears this painfully…”  
  
“The way I see it you have no authority to decide to die for me or anybody else here to get us rescued,” Claire said shortly, ignoring the joke he’d just made. “They have a right to know what you’re planning on doing and to stop you from going. It’s very simple Charlie.”  
  
“I can’t  _not_  go!” Charlie snarled. “This is what I’m supposed to do!”  
  
“Have you forgotten that I promised to look after you?” Claire asked quietly and Charlie lowered his eyes humbly. “Have you forgotten that I said we’d get through this together? I don’t plan on breaking that promise Charlie, not now not ever.”  
  
Charlie looked up then, and shook his head helplessly at her determined face.  
  
“Why even bother?” he said dismally. “At least this way I’d be doing some good by dying. If you save me today then Desmond’s just going to keep having his flashes and one day when we’re least expecting it, I’ll die because of something really trivial and stupid…”  
  
Claire let go of his shirt and placed her hand over his mouth.  
  
“You know exactly why I’m bothering,” she said quietly.  
  
Charlie eyed her reproachfully over the top of her hand and Claire slowly took it away and leant up to kiss him softly.  
  
Charlie sighed against her mouth, releasing all the tension in his body and it was at that exact moment that there was a yell from further down the beach and suddenly everyone was rushing to join the throng that was busily forming. The two of them moved automatically towards the hubbub, but then Charlie let go of Claire’s waist and nodded towards Aaron.  
  
“You watch him,” He said. “I’ll go find out what’s going on.”  
  
“Only if you promise to come back and tell me what’s going on straight away,” Claire insisted, catching his hand and holding it tight. Charlie hesitated and she stared hard at him. “Charlie?”  
  
He nodded although he didn’t look too happy about it. “Okay. I promise.”  
  
“Thank you,” she said simply. “Thank you for not just keeping me in the dark. I hate that.”  
  
Charlie offered her a tentative smile then. “I know. You’d think I’d’ve learnt after the first million times I’d done it.”  
  
And with that, he was gone.


	3. Part Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU. Claire is suspicious enough when Desmond comes and asks Charlie to help him with a project but when she discovers that Desmond nearly let Charlie get killed by Rousseau’s arrow trap, she realises that they’re both still keeping secrets from her. When she discovers that Charlie is actually planning to die in the Looking Glass so that she might be rescued, Claire insists that the decision be taken out of his hands and puts the other survivors to a vote. From there, it’s all AU fun and games!

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155122168@N03/36527342043/in/album-72157686884668124/)

“So let me get this straight,” Jack said, running a bewildered hand over his hair. “Charlie has to unblock the signal because he’s the only one who can do it – but if he does it then he’s gonna die?”

“Pretty much,” Desmond said grudgingly. He’d been glaring at Claire intermittently since she had spilled the proverbial beans. Neither she nor Charlie had had any time to consult him before Jack had called them all in for the big camp meeting. It had all been going quite swimmingly until Jack had decided that the signal needed to be unblocked at the same time that the survivors called for help from up at the radio tower. When he had turned to ask Charlie if he was still up for a swim, Charlie had cleared his throat awkwardly and Claire had swiftly taken the floor, explaining that no he wasn’t really up for a swim.

It was at this point that Desmond had spoken up and a great shouting match had then taken place in which the survivors had been given a somewhat garbled, abridged version of Desmond’s flashes and what it meant for Charlie if he swam down to the station. Most of them were still staring blankly at the people next to them, not really understanding what was going on. Claire however, was very aware of what was going on and she was doing her best to hold court.

“So you see why I didn’t think that this was a decision that Charlie should be allowed to make on his own?” Claire said, appealing to the other members of the camp. “It impacts on all of us – especially if we send him down there, knowing that he’s going to die.”

“We’ll put it to a vote then,” Jack said, sounding thoroughly frustrated. “We can’t waste any more time that we don’t have. All those in favour of Charlie swimming down to the Looking Glass on what could probably be a suicide mission?”

The crowd was silent, shifting restlessly on their feet.

And then Desmond slowly raised his hand.

“Desmond!” Claire gasped.

He glared at her and then stared defiantly around at other castaways who muttered amongst themselves. Charlie however, nodded at him and Claire felt furious. Desmond was all but signing Charlie’s death warrant and he was _approving_ of it?

“And all those in favour of Charlie not swimming down to the station?”

Every single other hand went up.

Charlie shook his head and sighed.

“You’re all making a huge mistake,” he said sadly. “I’ve got to be the one to unblock the signal.”

“I can do it,” Sayid interjected. “I will swim down there.”

“We’ll need someone else to stay behind to shoot the dynamite then,” Jack pointed out. “And I can’t do it because I need to stick with the group heading up to the radio tower.”

“It has to be _Charlie_ who swims down there,” Desmond spoke up unexpectedly. His face was pale but his voice was strong. “Charlie is the only one who’ll be able to turn the jammer off.”

“And why’s that Kilt-man?” Sawyer said nastily.

“Because, Sawyer,” Desmond said, deathly quiet. “He just is.”

A long silence followed this pronouncement and then Charlie laughed suddenly, breaking the tension.

“This is absolutely ridiculous,” he scoffed. “No matter how many times we recount the votes I’m still going to go down there anyway. Whether you lot like it or not, it’s all been pre-ordained – fate and all that.”

“There’s no such thing as fate,” Jack said disapprovingly. “Somebody else will be able to do it.”

“How do you know that?” Charlie challenged. “What if somebody goes down there and then finds out that they can’t unblock it for whatever reason and we’re all on our way up to the radio tower, totally clueless?”

A tense silence followed this and then Charlie turned appealing to his camp mates. Claire watched him gaze around at them all, a determined set to his jaw, and a strange feeling swelled up within her.

It was a moment or two before she realised that it was pride.

“I’m supposed to do this,” Charlie told them all, his voice firm. “And if I happen to die in the process of getting everybody else rescued…well then so be it. In the grand scheme of things my death for the rescue of everybody else? It’s not that big a deal. And if I don’t die…” he paused. “Well then I’ll be the first person to give myself a big congratulatory pat on the back and I hope you’ll all follow suit.”

A spatter of chuckles escaped the crowd.

“If you really think that you’re going to die down there then we need to make sure that there’s somebody with you to stop that from happening then,” Jack sighed. “We need somebody to check everything out and make sure that it’s going to be safe. And no Sayid,” he interjected quickly. “Not you. We need you here to set off the dynamite.”

“I’ll go with him,” Desmond said instantly. “I’ve seen what’s gonna happen, maybe I can still change it.”

Claire turned, her heart going into her throat. After what Hurley had told her she had been getting more and more suspicious of Desmond’s motives. Just how far would he go before he gave up on Charlie altogether? He’d done it once already so there was no doubt in her mind that he could do it again in a heartbeat.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Jack was saying. “Okay so Desmond is going to go with Charlie, everyone else needs to…”

“If Desmond’s going then I’m going too,” Claire interrupted loudly. All eyes turned to her. Charlie simply gaped in disbelief.

“No you aren’t!” Jack spluttered, apparently just as shocked as everyone else. “You need to take care of your son!”

“Charlie needs me more than Aaron does right now,” Claire argued. “And I promised Charlie that I’d take care of him.”

“Like you could stop him from drowning,” Desmond scoffed.

“Well at least I’d actually _try_!” Claire turned an icy glare on him. “Which is more than I can say for certain people who nearly let Charlie die because they thought they’d get to see their girlfriend again!”

A surprised murmur went through the crowd and Naomi’s expression flickered.

“Well as it turned out,” Desmond said coldly. “I was right. Maybe if I’d let him die Penny would have been the one in the parachute.”

“Naomi was already in the parachute,” Claire said, disgusted. “No matter whether you let Charlie die or not, it still would have been her and not Penny.”

“You don’t know that!” Desmond flared up immediately.

“Neither do you!” Claire abruptly turned to Jack. “I’m going with him Jack whether you like it or not. I don’t trust Desmond with him anymore.”

“Fine,” Jack said angrily. “I just hope you remember that you’ve got a two month old infant who’s going hungry while you’re off gallivanting in the ocean.”

“Coconut milk works as a good substitute,” Sun chimed in. “It’s not quite as good as breast milk and it takes more effort but I’ve used it before when I’ve watched him. I’d be more than happy to take care of Aaron for her.”

“Fine then,” Jack snapped. “I can’t afford to waste any more time on this or else I’d argue some more. Claire, get Sun set up with Aaron’s stuff. If he gets sick or dies while you’re away then it’ll be on your conscience, not mine.” Claire flinched at this but Jack was already turning around to the other survivors, rallying them to go. “Everyone else go and start packing your bare essentials – blankets, jackets, food – and then fill up your drink bottles and then meet back here as quickly as possible.”

Claire turned to Charlie who was shaking his head at her.

“You don’t have to do this,” he murmured, crossing his arms awkwardly. “You don’t have to try and prove anything to me.”

“I’m not trying to prove anything,” she insisted. “I just don’t trust Desmond to keep you safe anymore.”

Desmond glanced over at them and grimaced painfully at her words before turning his back and shambling off down the beach again.

“Cut him some slack would you?” Charlie said, frowning after Desmond. “He’s a good bloke. It’s not his fault he keeps on seeing me die.”

“Maybe not,” Claire conceded. “But if he’s willing to sacrifice you for his own selfish reasons then I’m sorry Charlie…” Charlie regarded her with wary eyes, clearly he was a little upset at the animosity Claire was expressing towards Desmond. “…But I just can’t trust him to keep you safe anymore.”

~*~

  
Claire trailed her fingers in the fast moving water on the opposite side of the outrigger to the underwater cable, keeping herself hunched and small in the tiny space between the two men. She was feeling jumpy and frightened now that they were out on the water. It all felt so much more _real_ out here and yet surreal at the same time. The sun beat overhead – she could almost feel it crisping her fair skin – and her feet were fairly melting inside her shoes but she still felt like she was floating up somewhere near the clouds.

The plan was that Charlie would swim down to the Looking Glass alone first. If he wasn’t back out in ten minutes then Desmond would go after him and bring him back to the surface whilst Claire watched the boat. She had been annoyed at being given the task of babysitting but – as both Charlie and Desmond had pointed out – she had the most to lose. If she somehow ended up drowning then Aaron would surely die.

And so, grudgingly, she had agreed to their terms – knowing that if push came to shove that she would gladly jump in anyway, despite everything that everyone had said, despite her fears for her son. Despite her readiness to come with Charlie, she had been loathe to say goodbye to her son when the time came. Jack’s disapproving glares hadn’t helped matters either but Sun had been adamant.

“He’ll be fine,” she insisted, jigging Aaron in her arms. “And Rose said that she’s going to help me with him as well. You go and do what you need to do,” she smiled a little. “Go take care of your other man.”

“Okay,” Claire had said, taking shallow breaths as she bit her lip. “Okay then. Okay.”

“You know you can still back out,” Charlie said quietly from behind her and Claire turned to glare at him. He shrugged sheepishly. “Just saying…”

“Bye sweetie,” Claire had kissed her son decisively, tucking the arm that was tugging on her hair back into his blanket. “Mummy loves you okay? But she’s got to go look after Charlie for now.”

Charlie had crept in then, and said his own goodbye to him. The child had reached up to his face, lovingly Claire thought. She had watched them both together, smiling slightly as Charlie had run a hand over Aaron’s downy hair and then bent to kiss his forehead…

“We’re here,” Desmond announced suddenly.

Claire started out of her thoughts and then jumped again when Charlie tapped her on the shoulder and held out a piece of paper to her. In his other hand was a Sharpie and Claire wondered vaguely when he’d had time to write whatever it was that he’d written.

“This is for you,” he told her. Claire took it from him gingerly and then stared at it, non-plussed.

“What is it?” Desmond asked interestedly.

Charlie paused as he stared down at the piece of folded paper in Claire’s hands, thoughtful and quiet. “It’s the five best moments of my…sorry excuse for a life.” He smiled ruefully. “My greatest hits.” Claire glanced down at the piece of paper in her hands – so fragile – and then back to Charlie who had the most melancholy expression on his face that she had ever seen. “You know,” he clarified. “Memories. They’re all we’ve really got at the end of it all, isn’t it?” he looked earnestly at Claire. “I want you to take it. Just in case...”

“Don’t say that,” Claire snapped warningly. “Don’t you dare even _think_ about saying it! I’m not taking it.” she pushed them back towards him stubbornly. “There’s not going to be a ‘just in case’ Charlie. I don’t want your bloody list.”

“She’s right,” Desmond said suddenly. “You don’t have to do this, Charlie.”

“What?” Claire said uncertainly.

“Des?” Charlie looked just as confused.

Desmond puffed out his chest, a pleased smile growing on his features. “I’ll go.”

“Desmond!” Claire gasped.

“No,” Charlie protested but his voice lacked any real sort of conviction. “Your flashes...”

“Maybe,” Desmond mused. “I keep seeing you die because I’m supposed to take your place.”

“What about your girl?” Charlie said, clearly grasping at straws now. “Penny?”

“What about your girl?” Desmond nodded at Claire and Charlie grinned despite himself. “Besides – I might be luckier than you.”

For a moment Claire felt selfish for being so pleased at this sudden turn of events, but then she remembered that it was Desmond who had suggested it in the first place and she began to feel excited. Everything was going to be okay now, Desmond might had seen Charlie unblocking the signal in his vision – surely he’d seen enough details that he could do it without Charlie actually being there? She and Charlie could wait up here for him and when he got back they could all go back to camp together. Maybe they could even catch up to the others…?

“Well, you can keep your memories to yourself then can’t you?” Claire said primly, handing them back to Charlie who took the piece of paper grudgingly.

“Aye,” Desmond agreed, looking happier than Claire had seen him in weeks. “I’ll take it from here.”

He began to pull his shoes off but Claire touched a hand to his arm and said, quietly, “Thank you Desmond. Really – it means it a lot that you would do this.”

“It’s nothing,” He shrugged it off, but he looked pleased by her praise all the same. “You might want to move behind Charlie, I don’t want to knock you out of the boat by accident.”

“Sure,” Claire began to climb over the top of Charlie who was shaking his head

“I dunno what to say Des,” Charlie said quietly.  
  
“You could uh, tell me where the weight belt is,” Desmond said somewhat sheepishly.

“Right there behind you,” Charlie nodded at it. As Desmond turned and grasped the weight belt, Charlie shuffled forwards and picked up the oar – to move it out of the way and make more space for her Claire presumed.

Until of course Desmond went to turn around again and Charlie clubbed him across the head with it.

Claire shrieked in fright and jumped backwards, almost falling out of the boat in her shock as Desmond crumpled over the edge. Charlie stood there for a moment, breathing shallowly as Claire trembled in the bottom of the boat. And then he swung around decisively. His face was almost unrecognisable as he hefted the oar more comfortably into his hands, like he was wielding a sword.

And for the first time since she’d known him, Claire felt truly terrified of him.

She knew that look in his eyes all too well. She’d seen it on the night that he’d stolen Aaron from her, when he’d been standing in the surf crying his eyes out. It was the look of a man so desperate that he had lost all sense and reason. But even back then he hadn’t really scared her. This Charlie – the man standing over her with a heavy lump of wood in his hand, ready to knock her out – _this_ Charlie terrified her.

Claire screwed her face up and clenched her fists, waiting for the blow that would render her unconscious, but something made Charlie hesitate and she seized her opportunity.

“Charlie,” she breathed, horrified. “Charlie _please_ …”

His arms were already trembling from holding up the weight of the oar and now his lip was trembling to match as he stared down at her, breathing unevenly through his mouth.

“You’ve already hurt Desmond,” Claire said pleadingly. “Don’t hurt me like this too!”

“He knows as well as I do that he’s not supposed to take my place,” Charlie said suddenly, his voice breaking. “I couldn’t let him…and I can’t let you stop me now...”

“I know you feel like you have to do this, I _know_ Charlie. But you don’t have to do it alone,” Claire leant forward and brushed the hem of his jeans with just her fingertips, looking up at him pleadingly. “ _Please_?”

“This was so much easier before you said that you loved me!” Charlie snapped suddenly and he threw the oar down so hard that it bounced off the side of outrigger, fell into the water and instantly began to sink through the water. Claire flinched visibly as Charlie pushed both hands through his hair and grasped a handful of the bleached straw between trembling fingers. “Bloody hell Claire! Why’d you have to say it? It would have been so much easier to do this if you’d just not…if you’d never said…”

“I thought I was going to lose you!” Claire pushed herself to her feet and the boat rocked alarmingly. The two of them grabbed onto each other for balance and Claire was surprised to see that Charlie had actually started crying – hot, angry tears dripping down his face. “I thought I was going to lose you,” she repeated, a little quieter as the boat slowly stopped rocking from side to side.

They stared at each other for a long moment and then Charlie spoke, his voice hoarse. “Since the moment you said it I’ve been questioning every single thing that I’m doing,” he shook his head. “And I really don’t know what to do anymore. Seems like every decision I make about what to do about these bloody flashes is the wrong one!”

“Well no wonder!” Claire cried. “Why would you think that I’d want you to die for me?”

Charlie sank down into the boat again and Claire sat down with him, clasping his hands tightly.

“Let me help you,” she said beseechingly. “Desmond saw you dying, but he never saw what would happen if we tried to change it. I mean,” she beamed suddenly, a wonderful thought occurring to her. “What if me being here stops you from dying? Maybe we can still fix this!”

Charlie swallowed hard and looked up at her. “What if we can’t?”

Claire bit her lip. He was right – she was getting carried away with herself now. What if she couldn’t save him? What if he died anyway? But then she reached forward and grasped his hand tightly.

“I’m with you to the end Charlie,” Claire said firmly. “No matter what that end might be. I can’t sit by and wait for you to be taken away from me – I won’t do it.”  
  
Charlie looked up, his eyes were still worried but there was a small glimmer of hope forming in the corners. “You mean that?”

“Of course I do,” Claire whispered. “I’ll do everything I can to save you Charlie. Even if it means I have to fight fate itself to keep you.”

Charlie’s face pinched as he leant forward to embrace her. Claire put her arms around his neck in turn and squeezed tight. Never before had she felt such a strong, inexplicable need to hold onto somebody and not let go. She knew from personal experience that it was much easier to just let go, to give up on them. But she knew beyond all doubt now – she didn’t want to give up on Charlie.

She would have let go a long time ago otherwise.

“Come on,” she said thickly, pulling back. “Let’s do this.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said, nodding as he wiped his face. He passed her the weight belt and Claire did her best to not drop it on her foot whilst she watched Charlie pull Desmond neatly back into the boat again and lay him down gently. Almost as an afterthought, Charlie took his Greatest Hits out of his jeans pocket and tucked it into Desmond’s breast pocket. Turning back to Claire again, his jaw set determinedly, Charlie took the weight belt and wrapped it around his left wrist.

“Hold on tight to my hand,” he instructed, offering her the hand that had the weight belt wrapped around it. Claire reached out and took his hand firmly, lacing her fingers with his. “I’ll lead the way – you just hold on tight so that we don’t get separated okay?”

“Okay,” Claire’s mouth was dry as they stood there together, shoulder to shoulder in the outrigger. Looking down through the clear blue water she could just make out the Looking Glass station, almost directly below them. Her stomach gave an uncomfortable twist at the depth they would have to swim down to. “On three?”

“Absolutely,” Charlie said, grinning inanely at her. Claire almost rolled her eyes at him and then he added, “You count.”

“Me?” Claire took in a shaky breath when he nodded. “Okay then. One…”

Charlie glanced sideways at her suddenly, still grinning. “Hey, Claire?”

“Two…what?”

Charlie grinned even wider and squeezed her hand. “I love you too.”

“ _What_?”

“Three!” Charlie cried and together they dove headfirst into the water.


	4. Part Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU. Claire is suspicious enough when Desmond comes and asks Charlie to help him with a project but when she discovers that Desmond nearly let Charlie get killed by Rousseau’s arrow trap, she realises that they’re both still keeping secrets from her. When she discovers that Charlie is actually planning to die in the Looking Glass so that she might be rescued, Claire insists that the decision be taken out of his hands and puts the other survivors to a vote. From there, it’s all AU fun and games!

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155122168@N03/36527342043/in/album-72157686884668124/)

The water was icy cold and Claire struggled not to gasp as she kicked out against the suffocating mass of blue. Charlie’s hand was still in hers and he was pushing down through the water with his free arm, frog kicking his legs, his eyes trained straight ahead. Claire looked down too and together they kicked frantically, heading down down down through the water.

It seemed to be taking forever get to the bottom – even with the weight belt dragging them down. For a moment Claire panicked, thinking that maybe they wouldn’t be able to get far enough down before they both ran out of air. Maybe she shouldn’t have swum down too – she might be buoying the weight belt up too much and they’d have to swim back to the surface. Maybe she should just swim back to the surface? Let Charlie go down there alone?

She shut her eyes, steeling herself to just keep on swimming and hoping like all hell that Charlie still had his eyes open and was heading in the right direction. She began to feel a little sick as the pressure began to mount on her ears, but then just as she thought she couldn’t stand it anymore, she felt Charlie drop the weight belt and her eyes flew open.

They were underneath the station. Claire let out a small amount of breath and then instantly regretted it. She was beginning to feel faint now from lack of oxygen, her brain was screaming at her to surface, to FIND SOME AIR. Charlie’s hand was still holding hers tightly, desperately tugging her along. She could sense that he too was running out of air and energy so she kicked out again, feeling a little panicked as she saw him let out a long stream of silvery air bubbles. They both flailed through the water, kicking as hard as they could and then there was the moon pool above them and Claire let go of his hand, choosing to use both her hands and feet to propel her upwards even as the last of the air was crushed from her lungs…

They broke the surface of the moon pool together.

Claire sucked in a huge breath, gasping and choking on the air as it rasped into her fragile chest and filled her lungs. Beside her she could hear Charlie doing exactly the same thing and then he started laughing. Claire eyed him warily, honestly feeling that it wasn’t exactly the best time to try and be funny – for crying out loud, they’d both nearly just been sent to an early grave and he was _laughing_ about it?

“Let’s get out of the water,” Charlie said in her vague direction, still chuckling as he executed a sloppy breast stroke over to a ladder which led onto the platform that surrounded the moon pool. Claire followed swiftly and allowed Charlie to gallantly pull her up the final step. The moment they were both on solid ground however, he gave a contented sigh and promptly collapsed onto his back.

“I’m alive!” Charlie yelled gleefully, his head thrown back. Claire collapsed next to him, relishing the feel of something solid beneath her and the realisation that she finally understood what Charlie had been laughing about before. “Ah! I’m alive!” Claire propped herself up on her elbows and beamed at him, giggling shakily as she too felt the giddy rush of adrenalin hitting her.

_BANG._

Charlie and Claire spun around simultaneously as first one, then another unidentified person came charging into the room from a small side door, guns held at the ready. On closer inspection, Claire saw that both of them were women and that they were both armed. The first woman, a blonde, was levelling a handgun at them. The other had shorter, dark hair and sported a rifle. As she ran in, the second one must have hit a switch because the room was suddenly flooded with double the light.

 _All the better to see us_ , Claire barely had time to think before she and Charlie were scrambling backwards, Claire clutching at Charlie’s shirt and trying desperately not to scream, Charlie holding up his hands to convey their lack of weaponry as their two attackers cocked their guns threateningly.

“Don’t move a muscle!” the blonde woman who had the handgun barked. “Stay exactly where you are!”

“Oh dear,” Charlie muttered under his breath and Claire resisted the urge to hit him. Of _all_ the times to be a smart aleck, she didn’t really feel that now was one.

“Who are you?” the blonde woman demanded, skirting the moon pool swiftly while her friend covered them from afar with the rifle.

Charlie and Claire remained silent, bodies tense as steel cables.

“Who are you?” the blonde woman yelled, losing her temper.

“Hi there!” Charlie blurted out in a voice that was so chirpy in comparison to his usual gravelly voice that Claire thought for a moment that the brunette with the rifle had spoken. She gaped at him in disbelief. “I’m Ken and this here is my girlfriend, Barbie! We’re looking for the summer fun house – can you lovely ladies give us directions at all?”

Blonde-handgun-woman stared at him incredulously for a moment and then she turned her gun around and hit Charlie across the head with the handle. Claire screamed as he slumped forward, semi-conscious.

“Help your boyfriend get up,” the blonde woman said harshly, taking the safety off her gun. “Or I’ll shoot both of you.”

Trembling from her toes right up to her lips, Claire helped Charlie to his feet and followed the woman mutely.

~*~  
Through The Looking Glass  


  
Charlie’s head snapped back violently as the blonde woman punched him viciously under the chin in a perfect uppercut. For one terrifying moment Claire thought that the chair he had been tied to might tip backwards with his weight and he’d hit his head on the floor but then he was upright again and the blonde woman who had tied them both up was interrogating him again, circling him like a vulture.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“Look,” her darker haired cohort said evenly from her seat on an upturned box. Obviously she was hoping that a softer approach might make Charlie more likely to talk. “If you tell us how you got down here, we won’t hurt you.”

 _Yeah right_ , Claire thought to herself but didn’t dare voice her sarcasm when she was trussed up so tightly and in the company of two deranged women with very real, very loaded guns.

The blonde woman had taken no time in tying both of them up – first Charlie had been bound to a chair and then Claire had been forced against one of the thin metal columns that were supporting a second level balcony right near where she and Charlie had gotten out of the water. Her hands had been tied behind her so tightly that her fingertips were already starting to go numb. During all of this, the brunette woman had watched both Charlie and Claire carefully, her finger tight on the trigger of her rifle, her face tense.

She really needn’t have bothered, Claire thought bitterly. Charlie had been so disorientated by the blow he’d received to the head that he’d been unable to co-ordinate himself enough to fight back and Claire had been shaking so much that she wouldn’t have been much use to anyone. Her teeth had still been chattering from fear when the women had decided to start their interrogation. Having gotten nothing out of Claire but stammering, they had quickly moved onto Charlie instead.

After they had ascertained that he was beginning to gather his wits again (due no doubt to the string of sarcastic jokes he had slung at them), the blonde one felt safe enough to start hitting him again in hopes that it might somehow convince him to tell them what they wanted to know.

“We came in our invisible submarine,” Charlie was saying to them now. He tipped Claire an enormous wink from across the room but Claire personally didn’t think that now was the time to be playing games, and she tried to convey this to him in her frown. “Don’t you see it?”

_SMACK!_

“Stop it!” Claire shrieked suddenly, surprising even herself with her sudden coherence. The blonde woman eyed Claire with apparent relish as she raised her hand to hit Charlie again, apparently pleased that she was finally getting a halfway decent reaction from one of them. With the first blow Claire screamed as loud as she could and as the woman continued to strike him, she struggled against her bonds so violently that she almost dislocated her shoulder.

“Hey! Take it easy,” the brunette said reprovingly before nodding at Claire who was still thrashing about like a fish caught in a net, panting from her sudden outburst. “She’s going to hurt herself.”

“Take it _easy_?” the blonde retorted, turning to her cohort with a look of utter disbelief on her hard face. “How am I supposed to take it easy when two of Them are down here?” she ran a scornful gaze over Claire. “And what do I care if she dislocates something?”

“Because,” the brunette said calmly, nodding towards Claire. “She’s not going to be any good to us if she goes into hysterics. And I don’t think that her boyfriend will be all that cooperative if she’s hurt either.”

The blonde seemed to consider this for a moment and then turned back to Charlie, leaning forward so her face was close to his. “Why are you here?” she pressed, her voice fractionally gentler. “Huh? How did you find out about this station?”

“Juliet told us,” Charlie said somewhat smugly, obviously feeling that this was something he could divulge freely. “She’s one of us now. In case you haven’t heard.”  
  
The blonde woman scoffed and turned away from Charlie to look at Claire.

“Is he telling the truth or do I have to hit him again?”

“He’s telling the truth,” Claire said quickly, her voice shaky. “Juliet told us. But she thought that it was flooded.”

“See, I’m not lying,” Charlie said smugly. The blonde woman turned back to him again as he continued to talk to Claire from across the room. “Hey, just for future reference, don’t you worry about them hitting me, I can take it. And for all they know you might Hulk out on them and break free of your…”

The blonde one silenced him with another hard blow to the jaw. Claire winced as she saw a spray of blood fly from Charlie’s lips.

“Stop!” the brunette said firmly as Charlie hissed in pain. “We gotta call Ben.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said thickly around a mouthful of blood which he promptly spat out on the floor. “Let’s call Ben.”

Their captors glanced at each other and then disappeared into another room. Charlie watched them intently and Claire craned her neck to try and see what he was looking at. When that turned out to be an exercise in futility, she began to strain her ears to hear what the women were saying.

“…Ben, it’s Bonnie. Ben, are you there? Can you hear me, Ben?”

Suddenly a voice crackled back in return. “Why are you breaking radio silence?”

“Two of Them are down here.”

The voice on the other end yelped. “I’m sorry, what?!”

“We have them tied up,” the blonde woman – Bonnie – informed him. “But they’re here. They swam down here.”

“Who?” Ben demanded from the other end. “Which ones?”

“They won’t tell us,” Bonnie said grudgingly.

Claire jumped when Charlie yelled out to them. “It’s Charlie!” he sounded positively gleeful. “Tell him I said hi!”

Claire rolled her eyes. Well there went their cover…

“How did...” Ben spluttered from the other end, temporarily speechless. “Who’s the other one with him? And how do they know about the station?”

“He said Juliet told them about the station,” Bonnie said flatly. “And the other one is a wimpy little blonde girl.”

There was a long silence in which Claire bristled indignantly and then the radio crackled again.

“That’ll be Claire Littleton,” Ben said grimly. Charlie and Claire eyed each other worriedly. Just how much did these people _know_ about them? “And I wouldn’t be so sure that she can’t handle herself. For now just sit tight and _don’t do anything_. I’m sending help.”

Charlie pursed his lips and nodded as he turned his chair away from the control room. Bonnie and her brunette friend were still in there arguing about something in hushed voices. Claire took advantage of their momentary distraction to meet Charlie’s eyes from across the room, desperately wishing to convey to him just through her eyes her fervent desire that he just stop talking, stop giving them a reason to hit him, stop giving away who they were and why they were here. Never in her life had she been so scared. Charlie stared back at her blankly for a moment, and then he did something truly amazing.

He smiled at her, sweet and reassuring – and despite the situation they were in, despite everything that had happened, Claire found herself smiling back at him.

“We’re gonna be okay,” Charlie mouthed to her, and then added. “Promise.”

Claire nodded bravely but after a long moment of staring at each other, Charlie cut his eyes away and the smile faded slowly away from his face. The moment gone, Claire’s smile faded as well and she leant her head back against the column she was tied to and gave a dry sob.

~*~

  
It seemed hours before Bonnie finally stopped hitting Charlie. Seemingly encouraged by the voluntary revelation of his name, she had informed her dark haired friend that she was going to see what else she could get out of him. After a fresh wave of brutality sparked nothing new however, she had taken to simply attacking him verbally as she toyed with her gun.

The brunette woman hadn’t seemed pleased by Bonnie’s actions but rather than sit and watch her, she had dutifully assigned herself to interrogating Claire instead. Her name had been revealed as Greta and she seemed to be under the delusion that if she was soft on Claire that she would get the answers that she sought. Claire was finding it surprisingly easy to ignore her questions, answering only the most trivial of them with monosyllables and otherwise watching Charlie carefully to see how he was holding up against Bonnie.

“I’m gonna ask you this one more time,” Bonnie finally said to Charlie in a would-be-patient sort of voice. “Why are you here?”

Charlie sighed and glanced over at Claire for a moment, considering. Claire shrugged her shoulders and shook her head in an obvious ‘your call’ gesture.

“I’m here,” Charlie said, eyes moving slowly from Claire back to Bonnie. “To turn off your jamming equipment. It’s in there,” he turned towards the command room as he spoke. “Next to the flashing yellow light.”

“How do you know about that?” Greta asked, forgetting her whispered interrogation Claire for a moment in the wake of her surprise.

“I know, because I know,” Charlie said condescendingly. “Whatever you ladies do to me, I’m going to turn it off.”

“You are, huh?” Bonnie said disbelievingly.

“Most definitely am,” Charlie informed her.

“So what’s the code?” Bonnie asked.

Charlie stared at her, non-plussed. “What?”

“Oh Charlie if you’re gonna turn off the jamming equipment you’re gonna need the code,” Bonnie shook her head at him pityingly. “And only three people know it. Me, her…” she jerked her head at Greta. “…and Ben.”

“Well,” Charlie considered for a moment. “I guess I won’t need the code. Since this entire station’s gonna be flooded anyway.” A smug smile began to form on his lips. “I just turn off your little jammer and the helicopters come and rescue all my friends.”

“But if this station floods…” Bonnie said slowly. “What happens to you?”

Charlie grinned at her, obviously relishing the words in his mind before he spoke them.

“I die.”

A long, tense silence followed this pronouncement and Charlie looked supremely smug at the stunned expressions on Bonnie and Greta’s faces.

“What about your girlfriend over there?” Bonnie said, trying to sound blasé and failing dismally.

“Oh she’ll get out somehow,” Charlie shrugged carelessly. “She’s not even supposed to be here.”

“Well why is she here then?” Greta asked, turning back to Claire and folding her arms. “Does she have a death wish or something?”

“Why don’t you tell them Claire?” Charlie said, yawning a little. “Maybe then these two’ll lay off and we can all get some sleep.”

All eyes turned to Claire and she squirmed a little under their scrutiny – especially Charlie’s.

“I’m here to make sure he doesn’t die,” she muttered eventually, feeling foolish.

“Why?” Bonnie asked roughly. “The world would probably be a better place if he did end up drowning.”

Claire flinched but Charlie looked amused.

“Ooh,” he said mockingly. “The big bad lady doesn’t like me.”

“Oh shut _up_ ,” Bonnie snapped then turned to Greta. “I can’t be bothered with this for now and we both need to get some sleep. I’ll take the first shift to watch these two idiots and you can go...”

“No I’ll take the first shift,” Greta interrupted swiftly. “You’re too tired. And you never got to finish your dinner before.”

Bonnie looked for a moment like she might argue but then she rolled her eyes and with a muttered “whatever” she disappeared through a door that led to another room – presumably their living quarters. After she had gone, Greta pulled a crumpled cellophane packet out of a pocket in her cargo pants and she offered a stale looking cracker to Claire.

“It’s not poisoned or anything,” she said, actually sounding hurt when Claire pointedly turned away from what was clearly supposed to be a peace offering. “You won’t be getting anything else for a while if you don’t eat this.”

There was a stale mate then in which Greta and Claire regarded each other silently. Then Charlie spoke up.

“Just give it to me to try first,” he offered cheerfully. “I’m going to die anyways so if it _is_ poisoned…”

“Oh for…” Greta scoffed and then broke off a piece of the biscuit and chewed it up very pointedly, gnashing her teeth at them both. “See? It doesn’t have arsenic or anything in it.”

Claire rolled her eyes and then opened her mouth, accepting the broken cracker gladly. It had been hours since she’d last eaten and she was feeling – unsurprisingly – incredibly hungry now. Greta smiled, appeased, and then moved around the moon pool to give Charlie the other cracker.

“You know,” she said quietly whilst he munched away and Claire licked crumbs off her lips. “We’re not really all that bad. Bonnie’s mainly just pissed off because you interrupted her dinner.”

Claire and Charlie caught each others gaze and then they both burst into nervous giggles. The idea of Bonnie being upset over such a trivial matter seemed utterly absurd.

“I’m being serious,” Greta said earnestly. “She’s okay once you get to know her a little better…”

When neither of them responded and merely continued to laugh, she seemed to grow almost embarrassed. “Right,” she said awkwardly. “Well then I’ll just shut up now shall I? Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.”

And with that, she trooped into the command room, plopped down onto the chair, put her boots up on the desk with a resounding thud and then laced her fingers behind her neck with a heavy sigh.

Claire raised her eyebrows at Charlie from across the room and he grinned at her, wiggling his eyebrows to show his amusement. Claire giggled quietly for a moment but when Charlie shushed her, she bit her lip to stop herself from getting too carried away. The last thing any of them wanted was for Bonnie to come back out again and see the two of them laughing and carrying on.

Claire let out a sigh and pulled gently at her bonds, trying to get a little more comfortable and work some feeling back into her frozen limbs. After she’d wriggled around for a while she looked back up at Charlie again. His head was resting on his chest – he had fallen asleep.

 _Nice for some_ , Claire thought jealously. Charlie had this strange ability to fall asleep almost anywhere pretty much instantaneously – Claire had never been able to do that.

She watched him for a while, memorising the rise and fall of his chest underneath his thin cotton t-shirt. She didn’t even realise that she’d fallen asleep until Bonnie arrived to take over her shift, unnecessarily stomping about in her boots. An indeterminate amount of time later, Claire woke again and realised that Greta was back on duty again – she was leaning on the wall outside the command room, her finger resting on the trigger of her rifle as she stared off into space, clearly bored.

Claire caught Charlie’s sleep fuddled gaze and smiled tiredly at him. He smiled back easily though the skin on his face pulled against the dried blood underneath his nose and on his chin.

“You okay?” she whispered to him. Her voice echoed slightly in the cavernous space and Charlie nodded tiredly. Greta glanced over at them both, eyeing them beadily in case they said anything suspicious.

“Go back to sleep,” he told her, pointedly ignoring the attention that Greta was paying to him. “I’m okay.”

Claire nodded – her eyelids already felt heavy.

“Sleep sweet Charlie,” she murmured to him as her chin dropped to her chest of its own accord.

“Sleep sweet my Claire,” Charlie whispered back, and Claire’s eyes flickered shut once again.


	5. Part Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU. Claire is suspicious enough when Desmond comes and asks Charlie to help him with a project but when she discovers that Desmond nearly let Charlie get killed by Rousseau’s arrow trap, she realises that they’re both still keeping secrets from her. When she discovers that Charlie is actually planning to die in the Looking Glass so that she might be rescued, Claire insists that the decision be taken out of his hands and puts the other survivors to a vote. From there, it’s all AU fun and games!

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155122168@N03/36527342043/in/album-72157686884668124/)

How long she slept then Claire didn’t know. She drifted in an out of consciousness several times, dreaming pleasant dreams of lying in the sun with Aaron in her arms and Charlie by her side only to wake to the cold and bleak yet again. It seemed cruel really, that her subconscious should tease her with images of warmth and sweetness when her reality was anything but.

After what could have been several hours or several minutes, her neck grew sore from the weight of her head so much so that the pain made her wake up fully from her dreams. Claire yawned widely and let her neck roll from side to side, trying to ease the stiffness and pain in it before wiggling her fingers, unsurprised to find them, completely devoid of feeling now. Her legs weren’t much better – they felt like frozen twigs inside her jeans and her feet were like lumps of ice inside her waterlogged shoes.

Glancing across the room revealed that Charlie too was awake, but his attention was fixed not on Claire but on the control room. Claire sighed gladly when she saw him sitting there – she’d been a little worried that he might disappear while she was asleep.

“Charlie?” she called out softly.

“Shh!” he hissed self righteously, turning back to her with a slightly panicked on his face. “Bonnie’s fallen asleep! I’m trying to scope out the command room, see if I can figure out how to turn off the jammer…”

“Sorry,” Claire muttered, turning her face away, embarrassed by the sting of tears. “I was just going to ask if you were still okay.”

Charlie was silent for a long moment and then…

“Sorry,” he apologised. “I didn’t mean to snap at you but...”

“I know,” Claire sighed. “You need to figure out how to unblock the signal.”

Charlie shifted uncomfortably in his seat and sighed. “Yeah,” he smiled slightly. “Thanks though.”

“For what?” Claire asked, thoroughly non-plussed.

“For worrying,” Charlie said wryly. “Not that I’m pleased to be making you worry about me but it does make me think that I might be missed after I’m gone which is nice.”

Claire glared at him. “Don’t say…”

“I’m not saying that I’m going to die _today_ ,” Charlie clarified. “Or tomorrow, or next week or even next year. Just…you know – eventually I am gonna die. Whether I drown down here today or…or I get hit by a bus, or die of old age is irrelevant – it’s going to happen one day. And it’s…well it’s nice to know that I’ll be remembered.”

Claire shook her head at him, disbelieving. “How could I forget you Charlie?”

Charlie hesitated before answering. “You did it once before. Or at least you seemed to.”

Claire flinched. They rarely spoke about the time when the two of them hadn’t been speaking. Or rather when she hadn’t been speaking to him she corrected herself unwillingly.

“Is that what you thought?” she asked quietly, trying not to let the wretchedness in her heart show through her voice. “That I had forgotten about you?”

Charlie considered his words carefully before he spoke. “I guess that’s not quite…the right way to say it. But you certainly didn’t seem to be remembering any of the good stuff about me that’s for sure.”

“I wasn’t,” Claire admitted, shamefaced. “I was trying to forget the good things because I needed a reason to be angry at you.”

“You _wanted_ to be angry at me?” Charlie looked shocked, then offended. “Why would you _want_ to be angry at me?”

Claire took a breath, knowing that there would be no going back from here. “I don’t know,” she mumbled. “A bunch of reasons I guess. For being a better parent than me, for overstepping your boundaries, for all the times you lied to me – for everything that you’d ever done that was less than perfect really. It was an awful thing to do and I’m sorry I ever did it. It was…awful. _I_ was awful.”

“But you never _told_ me,” Charlie pointed out. “I had no idea that I was doing anything wrong all that time until you told me later on. But that was ages after we got back together again…”

“I never told you because I was scared to,” Claire told him, her voice catching. “I didn’t know how you’d react and…well because I was scared of hurting you.”

“If you hated me then why would you be scared of hurting me?” Charlie asked, bewildered.

“No, no! That’s not what I meant!” Claire said hastily. “I never hated you Charlie. I _wanted_ to hate you because I thought it would make everything so much easier. But whenever I started to think about you I kept thinking about all the good stuff and it drove me crazy because you’d lied to me and I thought you were using and all this other stuff and I knew I couldn’t trust you but I still wanted to and…” she stopped abruptly mid sentence and let her head drop, frustrated with herself. “None of this is coming out right. Can we just say that I was immature and stupid and just leave it at that?”

“Why didn’t you want to hurt me though?” Charlie pressed. “You make it sound like it was so hard for you but I have to tell you that from where I was standing it looked totally effortless. At one point I actually wondered if I’d just been wasting my time being friends with you in the first place and you were just being polite and pretending to like me all along.”

Claire’s breath caught. “Did you?”

“Yeah,” Charlie dropped his eyes as though he were embarrassed. “Sorry. But you did give me cause to wonder for a while there…”

“But you still gave it one last chance,” Claire reminded him. “You brought me the vaccine.”

“Yeah,” Charlie grinned slightly. “As much as I didn’t want to get yelled at again, I honestly thought that you might need it more than everyone else. My heart won over my head. Lucky for us I guess.”

Claire smiled back at him and Charlie dropped his eyes, still grinning.

“Charlie?”Claire whispered after a moment and he looked up at her again, his smile fading slightly at her expression.

“Yeah?”

“I’m scared,” she admitted.

Charlie didn’t say anything at first and then he sighed. “Yeah. Me too.”

Claire shut her eyes and took in a shaky breath.

“You beginning to wish that you hadn’t come yet?”

Claire’s eyes snapped open again and she stared at Charlie as he waited patiently for her answer.

“No,” she said defiantly. Charlie smiled knowingly and Claire sighed. “Okay yes, maybe I wish that I hadn’t come – if only to avoid the watching you being tortured part…” She paused for a moment as Charlie looked fleetingly disappointed. “But I’d much rather be here with you than anybody else.”

Charlie grinned at her. “I admit myself flattered luv. You’d rather be here, watching me get tortured than anybody else in the whole world. Thanks.”

“I wouldn’t be here if you were anybody else,” Claire said quietly.

They regarded each other silently for a moment and then Charlie moved decisively. Bit at a time, he put his feet out and dragged his chair slowly, inexplicably towards her.

“Charlie!” she hissed. “What are you doing? You’ll wake up Bonne and she’ll come and start hitting you again!”

Charlie ignored her and continued to shunt himself along determinedly. It took him the better part of five minutes to get over to her but when he did he grinned up at her.

“You’re lucky Bonnie didn’t hear that,” Claire whispered disapprovingly.

“If she didn’t wake up all that time we were just talking then she must be pretty well dead to the world,” he pointed out and Claire sighed.

“Famous last words,” she warned him but Charlie ignored her.

“This is certainly a first isn’t it?” he said interestedly, tilting his head to look up at her.

“What? What is?” Claire asked, bewildered.

“You being taller than me.”

Claire gave an exasperated sigh as Charlie shuffled himself as close as he could without squashing her feet and then leant his head longingly against the only part of her anatomy he could reach – which just so happened to be her stomach.

Claire gave a dry little sob as he nuzzled up against the damp material of her shirt. For the first time since she’d known him, Claire was overcome with a sudden burning desire to touch him, to stroke his hair, to kiss him, to hold him in her arms and tend to the many cuts and bruises on his visage...

She wanted to keep him safe.

The thought surprised her so much that her knees actually wobbled and as she did so, she realised that the ropes that were binding her wrists were able to slip up and down the column at her back. Taking advantage of this development, she bent her knees and allowed the ropes to slip down far enough that she could bring herself face to face with Charlie. Then – despite the uncomfortable crick in her neck, the pressure on her shoulder sockets, the way her frozen legs were stiffening and cramping from holding up her weight – she kissed him.

Charlie leant up into her kiss as much as he could, sighing a little against her mouth, but there’s only so much you can do when one of you is tied to a chair and the other to a pole. Claire bent her knees even more so that she could deepen the kiss. Her neck was excruciating painful as she bent it around enough to continue kissing him…

The sound of sudden, angry footsteps made them jerk apart.

“For God’s sake!” Bonnie was striding towards them both, looking livid. “This is worse than having a pair of freaking teenagers down here!”

“Well it’s your own fault really. I’ve always had a thing for bondage,” Charlie winked lewdly at her and Bonnie, furious, aimed a sound kick at his kneecap. Charlie scrunched his face up and somehow managed to suppress a howl of pain into a mere grunt as she dragged his chair away from the pillar and then pushed it up violently against the nearest wall. His head slammed back and made a resounding crack as it made contact with the metal. Claire bit back a scream as Charlie slumped forwards, moaning.

Bonnie turned to Claire menacingly and she shrank back against the pillar, struggling to stand upright again.

“If you want your boyfriend to live past the age of thirty I suggest you teach him the merits of shutting up,” she snapped as she dragged Charlie back towards the command room. “I’m losing my patience _and_ my sleep right now.”

“I’m not shutting up anytime soon,” Charlie mumbled groggily. “So unless you have something to gag me with…”

“How about my fist?” Bonnie snapped as Greta came out of the other room. “Greta, get something to gag this idiot with.”

Greta looked reproachful. “What for?”

“Because he’s pissing me the hell off!” Bonnie all but roared.

“Okay Bonnie I think you need to calm down a little bit,” Greta said sharply. “Let’s go in the control room okay and we can talk about this logically…”

“Screw logic,” Bonnie snarled, levelling her handgun at Charlie’s head, but Greta grasped her arm firmly and looked her straight in the eye.

“Bonnie,” she said quietly. “You know how worked up you can get. Let’s go to the control room and discuss this. Please?”

Greta tugged on her arm once more and finally, Bonnie relented. She was still glaring at Charlie and Claire when the door to the command room was shut and she began to argue with Greta. Their voices rose and fell in a ceaseless crescendo-decrescendo-crescendo and Charlie and Claire watched the door worriedly, wondering if it was safe to speak at all.

Suddenly there was the sound of splashing water and a gasp of air. Claire’s head snapped around to see someone breaking the surface in the moon pool and she froze for a moment, thinking that it was one of the Others until she saw the familiar scrubby beard and long hair of…

“Desmond!” Charlie gasped.

“Charlie!” Desmond gaped at the two of them and then began to swim over to Charlie. “Claire! Bloody hell! Are you all right?”

“Not for long if you don't get out of here!” Claire hissed frantically. “You have to hide, Desmond! Now!” At his confused look, Claire jerked her head towards the command room. “There’s people in there!”

“Quick, hide hide hide!” Charlie agreed. “Go go go! Hide hide hide!”

Desmond backpedalled swiftly and then hauled himself out of the water, padding barefoot around the edge of the moon pool, searching desperately for somewhere to hide.

“The cabinet!” Claire hissed, jerking her head to the space underneath the balcony. She had been eyeing this particular cupboard ever since they’d tied her up there, wondering if perhaps they could have hid in there when they first got down there. Now it seemed, her idea might just save Desmond’s life. “Try the cabinet!”

Desmond raced over to it and the door rattled desperately in his hands but wouldn’t open at all. As Claire watched frantically, she felt a thrill of dread when she distinctly heard the sound of the heavy command room door opening and Bonnie’s rang out saying, “What’s that noise?”

Claire looked over at Charlie, terrified, eyes wide. Behind her she could hear Desmond struggling with the doors, making one hell of a racket. Charlie opened his mouth and began singing loudly to try to cover the noise. There was a triumphant hiss from Desmond, a squeak of hinges and then silence but Claire didn’t dare look around for fear that she might give away his position and ruin everything.

“…acting like it’s…stupid people…”

“What was that noise?” Bonnie demanded, striding out of the room and addressing Charlie. “What did you do?”

“What noise? There’s no noise – I was just singing,” Charlie began to warble out the chorus to ‘You All Everybody’ again. Claire kept her face carefully blank as the Bonnie and Greta quickly scanned the surrounding area, guns at the ready. Bonnie turned back to Charlie and roughly backhanded him across the face.

“Shut up,” she said coldly.

“Right, okay,” Charlie agreed, wincing. “You got it.”

“Come on,” Bonnie said and Greta followed her back to the command room silently but they didn’t shut the door. Charlie watched Claire’s corner of the world, ignoring the blood trickling down his cheek.

“You’re bleeding,” Claire whispered, aghast.

“Just a scratch,” Charlie said dismissively. “I’ve had worse.”

He continued to peer across the corner of moon pool at the cabinet in which Desmond had hidden, and Claire grew still as well, looking and listening for any sign of him from within.

“Do you think they saw him?” Claire mouthed, jerking her head at where Desmond was hiding.

“No,” Charlie returned just as quietly. “They would have gone straight over there and shot through the door if they knew someone was in there.”

They sat and stood there in silence for a long time. Bonnie and Greta were still whispering furiously to each other from inside the command room.

“How long do you think it’s been?” Claire wondered. “I can’t tell what time it is anymore.”

“Well I don’t remember exactly what time we swam down here,” Charlie murmured, swivelling around and around on his chair before coming to a stop. “But I’d wager that it must be morning by now.”

“The others are gonna be wondering why the signal hasn’t been unblocked,” Claire said guiltily. “You think they’re up at the…?”

Bonnie and Greta came out of the command room and Claire clammed up immediately. Bonnie was incredibly sour faced as she stumped over to the table she had been sitting on previously to interrogate Charlie and Greta was troubled as she came to stand by Claire again.

“So what’s the verdict?” Charlie asked. “Am I to be gagged after all of that?”

“Only if you keep talking,” Bonnie snarled, clearly displeased.

Charlie nodded thoughtfully and then abruptly began to hum. Bonnie stiffened but Greta called her name warningly and the blonde woman scowled and began to take her gun apart and put it back together again as quickly as she could. After several minutes of this, Charlie turned to grin at Claire, still humming.

Claire frowned at him, willing him to stop, but the expression on Charlie’s face was positively devilish and she knew that no matter what she did, he was going to do his utmost best to give these two women hell.

Claire took a deep breath and steeled herself for the storm she knew would soon be coming.


	6. Part Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU. Claire is suspicious enough when Desmond comes and asks Charlie to help him with a project but when she discovers that Desmond nearly let Charlie get killed by Rousseau’s arrow trap, she realises that they’re both still keeping secrets from her. When she discovers that Charlie is actually planning to die in the Looking Glass so that she might be rescued, Claire insists that the decision be taken out of his hands and puts the other survivors to a vote. From there, it’s all AU fun and games!

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155122168@N03/36527342043/in/album-72157686884668124/)

Charlie continued to hum for close to fifteen minutes and in that time, Bonnie grew more and more agitated, repeatedly telling him to be quiet and shut up or she’d shoot him. If she hadn’t been holding a gun, Claire might’ve laughed at the situation but after a while even Greta had drifted back over too, as if worried that Bonnie might do something rash to Charlie in her rage.

And Charlie continued to hum to himself, occasionally muttering indiscernible lyrics along with his melodies as well. Claire vaguely wondered if he was just shamming for Bonnie’s benefit or if he really was composing a song – he’d done it like this before when he had been deprived of his guitar and it had driven her crazy too.

Suddenly, Bonnie all but shrieked in frustration, making Claire jump. “I told you to shut up!”

“You know when you get a tune stuck in your head?” Charlie asked, supremely unconcerned with Bonnie’s antics. “This song just started coming to me. It’s almost finished. Just need to find the bridge…”

Bonne slammed her gun down, pushed herself onto her feet and her smouldering gaze fell upon Charlie. “Get me the spear gun!” she ordered Greta.

“What?” Greta said, confused. “Why?”

“Cause I want it to hurt.” Bonnie took a menacing step forward, eyeing Charlie with a rather unhealthy amount of bloodlust.

“No,” Greta said, panicking. “Ben said...”

“You don’t wanna get it?” Bonnie snapped and began striding towards Greta. “I will!”

Charlie watched her go, the smug smile on his face fading suddenly to a look of blank terror.

“Bonnie!” Greta called out reproachfully as the other woman passed her.

“Oi, oi oi, no!” Charlie said, panicking, and a moment later Claire realised why. Bonnie was heading straight for the cabinet where Desmond was hiding. “I’ll, I’ll shut up! I’ll shut up, I’ll shut up, I’ll shut up!”

Bonnie touched the handle and Claire steeled herself for whatever might happen next but then there was a sudden splash from the moon pool and she turned swiftly, her heart in her throat. There was a man floating in the water decked out in a collection of scuba gear – a man she didn’t recognise, which could only mean that he was one of the Others, the one that Ben had sent to help Bonnie and Greta. Claire felt sick with the knowledge that their time – and luck – might have finally run out.

“Mikhail?” Bonnie asked, her voice confused but somehow welcoming at the same time.

“I thought you two were on assignment in Canada?” the man – Mikhail – asked and then he began to swim over to one of the ladders. Claire took note of his accent but couldn’t quite place it. Germany? Russia? He threw his face mask onto the platform and Greta came over in case he needed a hand getting out of the water.

“He made us promise not to tell anyone,” she murmured as Mikhail pulled himself out of the water and began to un-strap his scuba gear from his body. He stared at Charlie quite openly as he did so and then, to Claire’s great surprise, Charlie spoke.

“Hello again,” he said warily and she felt her breath catch. He’d met this man before?

Mikhail stared at Charlie for a moment longer and then turned his gaze to Claire, still bound tight to the pillar before he swung back around to Bonnie and Greta. Claire shuddered. He only had one eye – the other lid was completely closed over with scar tissue. She’d never seen anything quite like it before.

“Where is the other one?” Mikhail demanded, his one good eye glaring around.

“What?” Bonnie demanded.

“This idiot and his girlfriend swam down from a boat,” Mikhail snapped, watching Charlie as he continued to undo scuba buckles by Braille. “I was just shooting at their friend. He dove down here.”

“We’re alone,” Bonnie told him. “It’s just these two.”

“Are you sure about that?” Mikhail asked as he advanced on Charlie, a knife suddenly in hand. Claire felt her stomach clench. Being beaten she could cope with (barely) but she didn’t know if she could sit by and watch Charlie get cut into pieces by some crazy man.

“Here’s a better question to ask, Cyclops,” Charlie offered, supremely unconcerned. “Why did your little friend Ben tell you people that this entire station was flooded when it isn’t? Or,” he said the following with great relish, staring straight at Bonnie and Greta. “Why these two have been jamming transmissions off the Island?”

“What?” Mikhail was momentarily flummoxed and then he stared at Bonnie and Greta accusingly. “Is that true?”

There was a tense moment, but then something began to beep intermittently from inside the command room and Greta immediately started towards it.

“That’s Ben,” she said but Mikhail held up his knife threateningly and she faltered and stopped.

“I’ll get it,” he informed her coldly. And then, as if daring them to stop him, he walked over to the command room, stepped inside and shut himself in. Charlie sat there smugly in his chair as Bonnie and Greta strained to hear the conversation going on behind the watertight door.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Greta breathed but Bonnie merely shook her head and began to pace.

Claire caught Charlie’s eye and he winked at her, apparently very pleased with himself. Claire just felt sick. This was supposed to have been easy – swim down here, help Charlie turn off the signal, make sure he didn’t drown and then swim back up again. Nobody had said anything about crazy gun-wielding women – or crazy knife wielding men for that matter.

After what seemed like forever, Mikhail exited the command room, pulling a black eye patch over his scars.

“What did Ben say?” Greta was the first to speak, her question falling out in a rush.

“Can we kill them?” Bonnie asked eagerly and Charlie looked up at her reproachfully.

“Is it possible to turn this equipment off?” Mikhail asked, completely ignoring Charlie and Claire both.

Charlie stared up at him looking thoroughly confused. Claire watched the scene before her silently, worrying right along with him. If anything happened right now, Charlie would be caught right in the middle of the crossfire.

“What?” Bonnie snapped.

“The equipment that’s jamming the Island,” Mikhail said impatiently. “Can you turn it off?”

“Sure,” Greta said easily. “Ben gave us the code.”

“You are the only ones who have it?” Mikhail pressed.

“Yeah. Why?” Bonnie was beginning to sound defensive now.

“What would happen if this station were to be flooded?” Mikhail asked.

“Nothing,” Greta spoke up and Bonnie glanced over at her. “The casing for the equipment is waterproof. It’ll keep going forever.”

Charlie and Claire exchanged a look of quiet panic at this but Mikhail was speaking again and they had to swiftly tune back in again to catch up.

“Then why do you need to be here?” he was asking.

Bonnie looked quietly incredulous. “Because Ben told us to,” she told him. “We were following orders.”

“And you never asked why?” Mikhail wondered.

“No.” Bonnie said simply, more than a hint of defensiveness in her tone now. “Because I trust him – and I trust Jacob.” Claire had only a moment to wonder who on earth Jacob was before Bonnie was speaking again. “And because the minute I start questioning orders, this whole thing, everything that we’re doing here falls apart!”

There was a moment in which Mikhail considered this and Charlie swivelled his head back and forth between Bonnie to Mikhail, the frown on his face deepening as the two of them stared each other down.

Mikhail turned to Greta. “She makes an excellent point.” He admitted.

The gunshots went off so suddenly that Claire actually screamed out loud as Greta fell backwards into the moon pool, dead before she even started falling. She never even had a chance to raise her rifle. Bonnie turned immediately and began to run towards Desmond’s cabinet, presumably to retrieve a weapon of some kind from within. Horrified, Claire and Charlie watched Mikhail follow her at his leisure, taking long steady strides so as not to mess up his aim.

The bullet hit her right in the back – the gunshot was scarily loud this close up – and Bonnie crumpled to the floor instantly, almost right in front of Claire’s feet. But she was not dead yet. Mikhail strode right up to her and kicked her until she rolled onto her back. Bonnie writhed in agony against the floor and then pushed herself back, away from Mikhail.

“No!” she begged weakly. “Please!”

“I’m sorry, Bonnie,” Mikhail said, not sounding sorry at all. “I too am following orders.”

Bonnie groaned and Claire shut her eyes and turned her face away with a dry sob. She couldn’t watch anymore.

Then there was the sudden slamming of a door and a man’s voice yelled out “hey!”

Claire’s eyes sprang open just in time to see Desmond set off the spear gun in his hand. It hit Mikhail almost square in the chest and he went down like a ton of bricks. Claire felt a flood of relief until she saw Bonnie pathetically reaching for Mikhail’s abandoned gun.

“Desmond!” she cried out in warning but he was already rushing forward to snatch the weapon up and then he pointed it straight at Bonnie’s head. Claire watched, horrified as Desmond cocked the gun, a look of pure hatred on his face. Bonnie stared back at him, her face utterly blank.

And then Charlie spoke urgently from his position on the chair.

“No, Des,” he said swiftly. “Don’t. We need her!” Desmond hesitated and Bonnie took in several shallow breaths, her eyes flickering between Desmond and Charlie. “Quick, come and untie me!” Charlie pressed and when Desmond didn’t move he lost his temper. “Quick you daft bugger!”

Desmond tore himself away from Bonnie and raced over to Charlie instead, quickly cutting his bonds. Charlie struggled out of the remaining pieces of rope as Desmond went to investigate the command room. Claire was trying her hardest to not start hyperventilating as she hung limp in her bonds. She watched, as though in a dream, as Charlie came running over to Bonnie, still pulling pieces of rope from his wrists as he came.

“What’s the code?” he asked, squatting down in front of the blonde woman as she coughed up her own blood and held herself together with her own hands.

“Go away,” Bonnie groaned.

“Bonnie, let’s just get this over with, okay?” Charlie said, his voice stumbling over the words in his haste. “What’s the code?”

Bonnie stared at him mutinously as Desmond came wandering out of the command room again.

“She’s not gonna tell you brother,” he called out.

“Yeah she’s gonna tell me!” Charlie said angrily.

“What makes you say that?” Desmond asked incredulously, walking towards him.

“Because you said it’s my destiny to turn off that jammer,” Charlie snapped, and then he turned back to Bonnie again. “Okay, Bonnie, we’re both gonna die down here. All right, let’s be perfectly honest.” He gestured over his shoulder at where Mikhail’s body lay, oozing blood. “That one-eyed maniac just killed your friend. He shot you in the back! It would appear that your glorious leader, Ben, put him up to it.” he paused for a moment to let this sink in. “Are you a sodding idiot?” he asked her but Bonnie merely regarded him with her pale, glassy eyes. “You have the opportunity to make Ben very, very angry.” Charlie told her. “Why would you not take that?

Bonnie stared at him for a moment longer and then a tired smile flickered on her lips – the first smile Claire had seen on this woman’s lips in all the hours that she and Charlie had been trapped down here.

“Five, four, five,” she said suddenly.

“What?” Charlie demanded.

“Eight, seven, seven...” Bonnie continued weakly.

“Is that the code?” Charlie asked her. Desmond squatted down beside him, amazed, as Bonnie continued to give them a list of seemingly random single digit numbers.

“Five, five, four, three, seven, seven...”

“Wait, start again!” Charlie began to scribble down the numbers he remembered on the floor with his Sharpie, still miraculously in his jeans pocket from before they’d swum down to the station. Claire’s heart flew up into her throat when she saw him write down three numbers and then stop, completely lost. “Start again!”

“Six, one, one...three…”

“Start from the beginning, Bonnie! Start from the beginning, Bonnie!” Charlie was beginning to panic now. He grabbed onto Bonnie’s shoulders and held her steady. “Bonnie start again!” Bonnie’s head dropped suddenly and Charlie lifted her face up again with lightning speed, his voice now becoming slightly desperate. “Bonnie? Bonnie! Wake up! Wake up! Bonnie, start again – start again!”

“Good Vibrations.” Bonnie murmured.

“ _What_?”

“Beach Boys,” Bonnie said simply and then repeated. “Good Vibrations.” When Charlie stared at her, non-plussed she sighed. “On the keypad – the numbers, they’re notes.” There was another flicker of a smile that was gone as quickly as it had come before she finished her explanation. “It was programmed by a musician.”

There was a long silence in which Bonnie’s head fell back against the wall gently and her eyes flickered shut. Desmond and Charlie turned to look at each other blankly and then Desmond managed to murmur a hushed, “Bloody hell!”

“Um…” Claire bit her lip, loathe to interrupt the two of them, but also loathe to be tied up for any longer than she had to be. “I know you guys are kind of busy and all…” Charlie and Desmond jumped, startled out of their moment. “But can somebody please come and untie me?”


	7. Part Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU. Claire is suspicious enough when Desmond comes and asks Charlie to help him with a project but when she discovers that Desmond nearly let Charlie get killed by Rousseau’s arrow trap, she realises that they’re both still keeping secrets from her. When she discovers that Charlie is actually planning to die in the Looking Glass so that she might be rescued, Claire insists that the decision be taken out of his hands and puts the other survivors to a vote. From there, it’s all AU fun and games!

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155122168@N03/36527342043/in/album-72157686884668124/)

Her limbs were long and slim and pale, the muscles strong and toned underneath her sallow, sun-starved skin as Claire tucked Bonnie’s arms in next to her body and then hesitantly wiped the thin line of watery blood from the corner of her mouth. Charlie was silent as he began to cover her body up with a blanket but Claire refused to let him cover Bonnie’s face, an unexplainable sadness taking hold of her as she stared down at the woman who had held them captive, tortured them and threatened to kill both of them.

“Hey,” Charlie reached down to touch Claire’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Claire continued to stare at the pale, waxen face of Bonnie. She might have been the more violent of their captors, but her face looked deceivingly placid in death. “It’s just…it’s a bit sad is all.”

Charlie paused and then knelt beside her, obviously confused. “What’s sad?”

“These two women,” Claire gestured at Bonnie and then nodded over at Desmond who had just retrieved Greta’s body from the water and was now laying her out neatly so that he could cover her with a blanket too. “They offered up their own lives to a cause they thought was noble. And then in the end…they died for nothing.”

Charlie was silent as Claire pulled the blanket carefully up to cover Bonnie’s pale face but when she’d done it, he crossed himself and recited a quick Hail Mary. Claire smiled at him thankfully as she pushed herself to her feet, taking the second blanket from Charlie’s arms. “Do you want me to check and see if Cyclops there is really dead?” Charlie offered worriedly, nodding distastefully down at the prone Russian. “Knowing his track record he’ll probably turn into a rampaging zombie or something.”

“No I’ll be okay,” Claire said, smiling bravely. “You should probably go see if you can find the keypad for the jammer. I’ll be there with you in a second okay?”

Charlie nodded, touching a gentle hand to her cheek for one brief moment before he turned to Desmond.

“Des?” he called out as Claire made her way slowly over to where Mikhail was lying on the floor, the damage from the spear gun clear. “There’s diving gear in those racks, yeah?”

“Aye. There’s plenty.”

Claire knelt down beside Mikhail and carefully touched the side of his neck to feel for a pulse, the same way she had with Bonnie.

“Why don’t you take care of that and I’ll tap out ‘Good Vibrations’?”

Claire frowned and repositioned her fingers. No…it couldn’t be…

“Guys?”

Charlie and Desmond were still chatting away, supremely unconcerned as Claire grew more and more panicked.

“ _Guys_?”

“You get any flashes?”

“No, nothing.”

“GUYS!”

Desmond and Charlie turned around to her, bewildered, and at that exact moment, Mikhail’s eyes snapped open and he reared up and put his hands around Claire’s neck.

She began to choke instantly, clawing wildly at the vice like grip around her throat. For a split second she worried that this trip might be her end and not Charlie’s after all. But in all his scheming, Mikhail clearly hadn’t banked on Charlie being able to run as fast as he could – especially when someone was threatening Claire.

“Get the hell off of her!” Charlie roared, effecting a flying rugby tackle that didn’t quite knock the Russian over but at least effectively loosened his grip enough that Claire could pull back against the wall, gasping for air. “Get the spear gun!” Charlie bellowed at her he tussled violently with the larger man. Desmond joined the fray a moment later and Claire was left dithering, trying to locate the spear gun again whilst the three men effectively tried to kill each other.

Just as her hand closed around the weapon however, there was an echoing splash and then a string of bellowed curses from Desmond and Charlie both. Claire turned around, spear gun in hand and saw them both standing on the edge of the moon pool waving their arms about and jumping up and down in fury. Under any other circumstances it would have been funny but right now, Claire was sick of being scared, she was sick of being here and she wanted more than anything to get home to Aaron.

“Coward!” Desmond was bawling. “Coward!”

“You GUYS!” Claire screamed, her voice cracking. “Shut the hell up!”

Both of them gaped at her as though they’d just been slapped.

“Christ,” Charlie said, face pale. “You scared me! I thought you were Bonnie for a second there!”

“Well why don’t both of you stop jumping up and down like you’re chucking a bloody tantrum and come _here_!” Claire snapped. “We’ve got a job to do! Just _leave_ Mikhail for now, we can deal with him later!”

“What if he steals the outrigger?” Desmond offered tentatively.

“Then we’ll _swim_ back to shore!” Claire roared. “Now stop arguing and _come here_.”

Desmond and Charlie meekly made their way back over to Claire who pointed Desmond in the direction of the diving equipment.

“Desmond, you get the diving stuff ready,” she instructed. “Charlie, you and I are going to unblock this bloody jammer because I am sick of this place and I’m tired and cold and I want to go _home_.”

“Yes ma’am,” Desmond said humbly, eyeing the spear gun in her hand apprehensively as she marched Charlie into the command room.

One wall was almost completely covered in computer consoles – screens and buttons and levers and all sorts of fun gadgets. Claire peered interestedly at them all and then turned to Charlie.

“So…what exactly are we looking for?” she wanted to know.

“We’re looking for a keypad,” Charlie told her as he raked his eyes over all of the various consoles and paraphernalia. “One with numbers on it at least going up to…thirteen I would think? That’d give you a full scale from C to C with all the sharps and flats between the notes.”

“It’ll probably be near the flashing yellow light won’t it?” Claire glanced up at it and then examined the consoles in front of her. “Hey, is this a microphone?”

“Looks like it might be,” Charlie came around her, touching her lightly on the waist as he did so, and peered down at the consoles. “It’s what Bonnie was talking into before. Aha! I think we have a winner!”

Claire watched in silence as he stared down at the keypad – numbered from one through to fourteen. Charlie began to hum to himself, eyes shut as his fingers twitched. Still humming, he punched in the numbers to the code, absolutely no troubles whatsoever. The yellow light clicked off and there was a low whirring noise.

“How’d you do that?” Claire asked him, amazed.

“Do what?” Charlie asked, confused.

“Just…figure out all the notes like that!” Claire nudged him, smiling. “I’m impressed!”

“I can pretty much play anything I want by ear,” Charlie shrugged, but he looked quite pleased all the same. “I’ve been doing it for so long now. And the Beach Boys were always favourites of mine so…”

“Well, I guess Desmond was right then huh?” Claire said, putting her free arm around Charlie and making as if to lead him out the door. “You did have to be the one to unblock the signal!”

She grinned at Charlie but he’d already been distracted by a flashing red button and the familiar beeping sound that they’d heard before – tinny and echoing in the small space. Claire walked around Charlie to read the label on the button, even as Charlie pointed wildly at it, apparently too amazed to even talk.

“Incoming transmission!” He finally choked out.

Charlie looked up at Claire, dumbfounded. The stupid thing hadn’t been beeping at all! It had been _ringing_ – like a phone! She nodded eagerly and set down the spear gun, excitement flooding her like an extra shot of adrenalin. The two of them huddled close together as Charlie pressed the button with fumbling fingers and then a shaky image began to appear on the small monitor in the controls along with a feminine voice, crackling through the static.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

Charlie snatched up the microphone that sat on the desk as Claire threw her arms around him and bounced excitedly on her toes. After months of waiting, were they finally going to be rescued?

“Yes!” Charlie said frantically. “Yes I can hear you!”

“Who is this? Who am I speaking to?

“Charlie,” he said, somewhat breathlessly, clutching the microphone with both hands as though it were a lifeline. “Charlie Pace. I’m here with Claire Littleton. We’re both survivors of flight eight-one-five, Oceanic flight eight-one-five.”

From what they could see of her, the woman onscreen looked confused. “Uh...where are you?”

“We’re on an island!” Charlie exclaimed. “We’re alive!”

“An island?” the woman sounded excited at this. “Well where? What’s your location?”

“I dunno,” Charlie said, deflating somewhat.

“Who are you?” Claire took over the microphone.

“This is Penelope. Penelope Widmore. How did you get this frequency?”

Charlie froze and shared a dumbfounded look with Claire before they turned and simultaneously yelled out for Desmond.

“Did you just say _Desmond_?” the woman asked, her image was fully clear now and they could both see beyond any doubt exactly who it was.

“Yeah, he’s here,” Charlie gabbled, stealing the microphone back from Claire again. “He’s with us!”

Penny’s incredulous disbelief turned into a wide smile. “Is he okay?”

“He’s brilliant!” Charlie exclaimed then added, “Hey, are you on the boat?”

“Wh-what boat?”

“Your boat, eighty miles off shore,” Charlie provided, then added, “Uh, Naomi…the parachutist…”

“Bu-I’m not on a boat,” Penny said, confused. “Who-who’s Naomi?”

A sudden tapping caused Claire and Charlie to turn. Mikhail was floating outside the porthole grinning madly at them, and in his hand…

“Where the hell did he get a _grenade_ from?”Charlie yelped.

“Charlie!” Claire screamed, grabbing desperately the front of his shirt. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

“You can’t lock this door properly from the outside – it won’t be secure enough to hold back the water!” Charlie said, rushing over to double check, Claire still hanging onto his shirt tightly. He turned to face her and in the moment when their eyes met she realised what he was going to say before he even said it. “Somebody’s going to have to stay inside.”

Penny was beginning to panic now, along with the two of them. Claire could hear the other woman still calling out for Desmond, asking them what was going on. Claire forced herself to focus on Charlie even as a movement out of the corner of her eye betrayed the fact that Mikhail had just pulled the pin on his grenade and Desmond was rushing towards them from the main room.

“You get out of here,” Charlie babbled. “And I’ll push the door shut behind us both!”

“No you won’t!” Claire said stubbornly, struggling desperately with Charlie as he tried to push her outside. “It can’t have been designed to be locked from the inside only!” she bawled at him, clutching desperately at his shirt, at his arms, at anything she could reach. A split second later, Desmond joined her, pulling at Charlie, pulling at the door. There was a moment of desperate fumbling and then somehow Charlie got onto the other side of the door to them both. Claire gasped out loud as he began to pull it closed, using the weight of his body and the natural pull of the door against them. She could see the determination on his face in the gap between door and frame and she knew beyond all doubt that if she didn’t get him on the same side of this door as her then he was going to lock himself in the control room and he was going to drown.

So without even thinking about what she was doing, she put her hand in the door to stop it from closing.

The pain was unbelievable as the heavy metal door crushed her hand against the frame. Claire let out an ear shattering scream of pain as she felt the fragile bones snap and splinter. The door swung open again and Charlie gawped at what he had done to her, absolutely horrified. Disregarding the pain in her crushed hand, Claire reached out and grasped his shirt, pulling him towards her through the door. Desmond began to push the door shut behind them, swearing his head off – but it was too late.

There was an almighty crash as Mikhail’s grenade went off and then the porthole blew in. Water rushed into the control room and blew the door open again. Charlie banged into Claire, who in turn flew into Desmond’s arms. Her hand exploded with pain as she held Charlie to her. He in turn wrapped his arms tightly around her shoulders, even as the torrent of water knocked their feet out from underneath them. Desmond was pushed all the way into the moon pool and was promptly lost under the water.

“Desmond!” Charlie yelled even as he and Claire were swept in after him as well.

There was an icy shock when they both fell into the water followed by several seconds of panicked flailing. Claire lost hold of Charlie in the chaos and she automatically reached out to find him again, losing a screams worth or air as she moved her broken wrist. Her hands came up empty and she screamed again, losing all of her remaining air and then, amazingly, her head broke the surface. Desmond was there too, treading water and catching his breath. Claire twisted in the roiling water even as it rose in an alarming manner, searching for some sign of Charlie.

“Charlie?” she called his name and it echoed off the ceiling like there were ten other Claire’s in the Looking Glass station, mocking her from every corner. “Charlie!”

Desmond swam towards her, panting and gasping.

“I think he swam up!” he had to shout to be heard over the rushing water. “We’ve got to get out of here before the whole place floods!”

Claire nodded, trusting that Desmond was right, and offered her good hand to him. “You’re gonna have to help me,” she told him. “I can’t use my right hand at all.”

Desmond nodded back and grasped her good hand firmly with his. Claire shut her eyes, took a deep breath, and together they dropped down underneath the surface of the water.

The swim back up to the surface was much easier than the swim down had been. Buoyed up by the air in their lungs, Claire and Desmond merely had to kick their legs and make sure that they were still heading towards the light. When they broke the surface, Desmond tugged her over to the outrigger and after he’d clambered in, he turned and hauled Claire in with him. They sat there for a moment together, trying to catch their breath and then Claire stood abruptly, looking around for Charlie in the surrounding waters.

There was nothing.

Claire felt the crushing weight of grief hit her even as she turned to Desmond accusingly.

“You said that he swam up!” she yelled, her voice cracking not only from emotion but also from the salt water she had swallowed. She gave him a shove with her good hand and Desmond nearly fell out of the boat. “You told me that he got out!”

“I said that I _thought_ that he got out!” Desmond corrected her, furious. “I couldn’t see him Claire! I assumed that he’d…”

“That means that he’s still down there!” Claire turned in panicked circles, nearly tripping over her own feet in her haste to scan the surrounding water. “What if he’s still in the Looking Glass thinking that we’re trapped down there somewhere? What if he went back for us?”

“Would you stop panicking?” Desmond grasped her shoulders and held her still. “Charlie’s not an idiot Claire. He knows we wouldn’t have stayed in there when it was flooding. He’s probably about to pop up out of the water any second now…”

“You’re just saying that!” Claire said accusingly, angry tears trickling down her face to mingle with the sea water. “You don’t really think that it’s true!”

“I saw Charlie drowning in the _command room_ Claire,” Desmond told her, very clearly. “I never saw him drowning in the open ocean! Just give it another two minutes alright?”

“He might be gone by then!” Claire howled out a sob and struggled against Desmond’s grip. “I can’t let him drown Desmond – I won’t!”

“Claire!” Desmond yelled. “Calm down you daft woman!”

Claire collapsed into the bottom of the boat again and burst into tears. She didn’t even bother to wipe them away. She couldn’t see how Charlie could still be down there now and not have drowned – there was too much ocean between the Looking Glass and the surface. And Charlie had been so adamant about locking that room to stop the rest of the station from flooding – the idiot!

There was a wheel on the door on the other side for a reason she thought angrily – surely the Others weren’t dumb enough to build an underwater station with a room like that which could only be locked from the inside? How could Charlie have thought that it was the only way? She began to push her tears away but she was still sobbing.

“Claire?” Desmond’s hand was gentle on her shoulder and Claire cried even harder. He hesitated for a moment and then Desmond crouched down beside her, his voice soft. “Come on sister, let me have a look at your hand while we wait for Charlie yeah?”

Claire offered her injured hand blindly to Desmond and he hissed in appreciative pain as he examined it.

“You certainly did a good job,” he told her. “I don’t know if we’re going to be able to fix this little mess without an x-ray machine and a bloody good surgeon…”

Claire didn’t answer. Her sobs had quieted a little now but her uninjured hand was resting over her heart in a tight fist and she could feel the steady thump-thump of her pulse through her ribs – fragile as spun glass underneath her cold skin. She wondered when it would stop, unable to function after breaking into irreparable pieces. She shut her eyes, a cold tear rolling down her cheek and suddenly there was a weak spluttering of breath from behind them. Desmond let her hand go, already crying out a greeting as Claire spun around. And in the moment when she saw him, her fractured heart seemed to instantaneously shatter and then reform in the same moment.

It was Charlie.

“Charlie!” she screamed and, not even thinking, she leapt back into the water and began to paddle towards him lopsidedly, holding her crushed hand to her chest so as not to injure it any further.

“Claire?” he croaked weakly, blinking the water out of his eyes and taking several tentative strokes in her general direction. “Are you okay?”

Claire didn’t answer, merely threw her uninjured arm around his neck and kissed him as hard as she possibly could. The two of them began to sink almost instantly and they were forced to pull away from each other so they wouldn’t get lost beneath the waves.

“Couldn’t you have saved the kissing for after I got out of the bloody water?” Charlie grumbled, coughing up seawater but Claire could have sworn he was smiling as they swam back over to the outrigger and Desmond hauled them both back in.

They all sat there for a long moment, catching their breath and dripping ceaselessly.

“So,” Charlie said eventually, his voice still breathless. “I’ve noticed that I’m not dead.”

“No,” Claire’s face stretched into a wide smile, her eyes blurring with sudden tears. “You are most definitely still alive.”

Charlie nodded and then his face split into the biggest grin that Claire had ever seen.

“Well why the hell aren’t you hugging me?” he demanded of her and Claire grinned back and threw her good arm around his neck, taking care not to squash her other hand between them.

Over Charlie’s shoulder, Claire watched Desmond collapse onto his back and put a shaking hand over his eyes. She rather thought that he might have been having a delayed heart attack.

After a long moment, Claire pulled back and pushed Charlie’s sodden fringe out of his eyes with her good hand tenderly. He smiled at her and was just about to lean in for a kiss when he saw the way she was holding her right hand. Realisation dawned on his face and he cried out as though he too were in pain.

“Your hand!” Charlie reached out to caress Claire’s crushed hand with frantic fingertips. At his touch she began to sob again, more from delayed shock than any actual pain as he enfolded her into his arms again and stroked her hair, taking care to avoid squashing her hand any further. “Oh God…Claire…I’m so so sorry…”

She lifted her tear-blurred eyes to Charlie’s face and saw that he was crying too now, tears streaming down his face and into her hair, beyond all emotion.

“Is it okay?” he was stuttering through his sobs. “I didn’t…I didn’t kill your hand too badly did I?”

“I-I think it’s broken,” Claire sobbed back. “I h-heard it s-snap. I f-felt it.”

Charlie took it gingerly between his hands again and turned it over carefully to examine it closer. An angry purple bruise was already starting to spread across the back of it and the flesh that wasn’t bruised was bloody and torn. He looked positively distraught at the sight.

“Oh my God…Claire…I can’t believe I…I’m so sorry!”

“I’m okay,” she hiccupped. “I’m just so glad that I got you out of that room in time!”

And with that, she promptly burst into a fresh bout of tears.

Charlie embraced her again, as tightly as he dared and they only drew apart when Desmond finally pushed himself back into a sitting position.

“D’you see anything?” Charlie asked grimly. He and Claire waited with bated breath but Desmond shook his head, smiling.

“I haven’t seen anything,” Desmond told them. “I don’t know if they’ve stopped altogether but this is the first time that somebody apart from me has changed a vision,” he shrugged. “Maybe that’ll change them – make them stop.”

“I hope so,” Charlie murmured, then suddenly he cried out. “Oh bollocks! We have to get back to the others again! Naomi – she’s not from Penny’s boat!”

“What?” Desmond demanded, confused. “But Penny was on the computer screen! You spoke to her!”

“I know,” Charlie said grimly. “She told us that she didn’t know Naomi – that it wasn’t her boat offshore.”

Desmond looked unaccountably grim. “We need to stop them from contacting that boat then. God knows who they might be.”

“Well what are we waiting for?” Claire asked. “Let’s head back to shore!”

Charlie and Desmond grumbled a little as they took up their places and began to pull the outrigger along the cable once again, this time back towards shore again. As they headed back, Claire turned to Charlie and watched him as he tilted his battered face towards the sun and took a deep breath of the cool air, closing his eyes. Feeling her gaze on him he opened his eyes again and at her questioning look, he lowered them.

“I never thought I’d see the sun again,” he admitted. “I was so sure that I was going to die down there – whether you and Des tried to change it or not.” He hesitated and then added, “That’s why I was going to lock myself in. I thought that I still had to die in order to make the vision work. To get you rescued.”

Claire’s throat filled with choked sobs.

“And then,” he looked up at her. “I saw you in the doorway, after I crushed your hand. But you just ignored the pain and you reached straight for me. And it was then that I really realised that you wouldn’t have come down there, you wouldn’t have done everything that you did unless you truly wanted me to stay, no matter the consequences. I was about to step out again when you grabbed me.”

“I told you that we’d get through this together,” Claire whispered, trying hard not to let her voice tremble. “I don’t break my promises lightly Charlie.”

“I would have died,” Charlie said shakily, lowering his eyes. “If you hadn’t been there…if you hadn’t come with me…” he shook his head and looked up, his eyes brimming over. “I would have locked myself in there and I would have drowned.”

“Don’t think about it,” Claire said swiftly, covering Charlie’s hand with hers and squeezing it. “You’re _alive_.”

“Your hand’s not,” he said wryly.

“No,” Claire looked down at it and then looked up at him again and reached her hand to touch his cheek. “But you are. And that’s all I care about for now.”

Charlie smiled tremulously at her and then leant forward to capture her lips with his in a gentle kiss.

“And if Desmond sees anything else,” Claire whispered against his lips. “Then I’ll fight for you again. I’ll fight for you until the day they stop. Nobody is going to take you away from me.”

Charlie smiled and kissed her again.

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

“For what?” Claire pulled back, surprised.

Charlie smiled, then said quite simply. “For loving me.”

Claire thought about it for a moment and then she smiled back.

“You’re most welcome.”


End file.
